Dozens of people tried to raise the alarm. Social services received multiple referrals. Star Hobson died anyway at sixteen months old, and the question of how the system failed her ran alongside the criminal case from the start.
A Short Life
Star Hobson was born in May 2019 in Keighley, West Yorkshire. Her mother, Frankie Smith, was nineteen at the time. Star's father, Jordan Hobson, had a separate relationship with Smith and was not living with them. From early in Star's life, those who loved her noticed she was a happy, affectionate baby — her grandfather Bernard Hobson later described her in court as "a happy, sunny baby girl" who was "sweet and affectionate, always smiling."
In April 2020, Frankie Smith began a relationship with Savannah Brockhill, a 28-year-old amateur boxer and security guard who referred to herself online as the "number one psycho." The relationship was, by multiple accounts, intense and controlling. Over the following five months, the abuse directed at Star escalated.
What Happened
Between April and September 2020, Star was subjected to sustained cruelty. Brockhill was the primary perpetrator — CCTV footage captured her assaulting Star, and the women filmed multiple acts of abuse on their phones, sharing clips with friends. Brockhill added dramatic music and captions to some videos. Both women were heard laughing in the recordings.
Smith pleaded guilty midway through trial to eight counts of child cruelty. A few days before Star's death, she had dragged the toddler through Bradford town centre on her reins, despite Star having a broken leg from an earlier attack — a fracture both women later claimed not to have known about.
On September 22, 2020, Star suffered catastrophic internal injuries. The judge later described her fatal injuries as comparable to those suffered in a high-speed car crash, caused by being kicked or punched. She lost approximately half her blood volume. She was taken to hospital and died on the same day.
Multiple Warnings, Not Acted Upon
Throughout Star's short life, concerns were raised repeatedly. The first referral to social services came in January 2020. Multiple friends and family members called to report what they were seeing. Those referrals did not result in intervention that protected Star.
The case was reviewed as part of a wider scrutiny of social services failures in child protection cases, alongside the near-simultaneous case of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, who was killed by his father and stepmother in June 2020. The two cases, decided eleven days apart in December 2021, prompted significant national discussion about oversight of children at risk.
Verdicts and Sentences
Savannah Brockhill was convicted of murder at Bradford Crown Court in December 2021 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years. The judge, Mrs Justice Lambert, told her: "Her short life was marked by neglect, cruelty and injury. She was murdered by you, Savannah Brockhill."
Frankie Smith was acquitted of murder — the jury accepted she had not encouraged or participated in the fatal assault itself — but was convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child. She was initially sentenced to eight years.
That sentence was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Attorney General under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme. In March 2022, the Court of Appeal agreed the original term was too short and increased it to 12 years.
Where Things Stand
Savannah Brockhill remains in prison, serving her life sentence with the 25-year minimum term. Frankie Smith is serving a 12-year sentence.
Star's family has continued to speak publicly about her in the years since. At sentencing, her grandfather told the court: "When Star was with us, she was a happy, sunny baby girl. We loved her so much. We will carry the grief of her loss with us forever."
Sources
Murder of Star Hobson — Wikipedia
Frankie Smith has prison sentence increased — Mirage News / Attorney General's Office
Star Hobson murder: Brockhill and Smith sentenced — CoventryLive