The woman who murdered Star Hobson after inflicting “utterly catastrophic” injuries has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years as a judge said the toddler was caught in the crossfire of a toxic relationship. Star suffered weeks of “neglect, cruelty and injury” from Savannah Brockhill, 28, in Keighley, West Yorkshire. The toddler died aged 16 months of cardiac arrest after being punched or kicked by Brockhill in September 2020 using “massive force” on a par associated with “a road traffic accident”, according to the judge. A postmortem revealed previous brain injuries, fractured bones and internal organ injury. Brockhill’s partner, Frankie Smith, Star’s mother, was jailed for eight years after she was found guilty of causing or allowing the toddler’s death. The 20-year-old was cleared of murder and manslaughter charges. “The physical injuries that Star suffered during her life are only part – however, a very significant part – of the tragic story of her life. She was also treated with, at best, callous indifference, by you both, and on many occasions with frank cruelty,” said Mrs Justice Lambert as she passed sentence at Bradford crown court on Wednesday. A local review of Star’s death is due to be published in January, which will feed into a national one ordered by the government after Arthur Labinjo-Hughes murder. The first of at least five safeguarding referrals from concerned relatives and friends was made in January 2020 by Hollie Jones, Smith’s friend. The judge thanked Jones for “love and care” she showed Star, noting she was frequently “used for free babysitting” while Smith went out drinking. Jones told the BBC that when social workers rang to say they were visiting, Smith spent an hour cleaning Star and covering up bruises. Social workers visited on four occasions, and closed the case three times, while police visited once. The judge found that Star was “caught up” in the crossfire of the 10-month relationship between her mother and Brockhill, which was characterised by “petty squabbles and jealous fights” which escalated into violent threats. Lambert said Brockhill, who she described as the “leading force in the relationship” with a violent temper, then took out her anger on Star, while Smith displayed cruelty and meted out “pointless punishments”. During sentencing, Lambert found that Star’s murder was not pre-meditated, and that Brockhill had not intended to kill her, but would “lash out” when in a “jealous rage”. Brockhill, an amateur boxer and security guard, denied all charges against her. Halfway through the seven-week trial, Smith pleaded guilty to eight instances of child cruelty against Star between April and September 2020. The court heard Smith was of extremely low intelligence, and “abnormally compliant” when told to do something by an authority figure. However, the judge said that she “did not accept” that these factors excused Smith’s conduct, describing her as a “neglectful and callous parent” who thought only of her own interests and would have realised her partner was abusing Star. “You chose to be and to remain in that relationship for your own purposes and your own gratification”, adding that Smith could have turned to several family members for help, as she had in the past. Anita Smith, Star’s great-grandmother, who had previously looked after the toddler for 10 weeks, said she would “treasure those memories of a content, happy child forever”. Bernard Hobson, Star’s paternal grandfather, choked back tears while describing a sunny child who often stayed with them overnight before Smith cut off all contact in March 2020. Describing the pain of hearing the evidence during the trial, he said that the family believed “all they could do is give her love and respect, and take the time to walk in her tiny shoes.” The sentencing follows the conviction of another couple, in a separate case, of killing six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes after a “campaign of appalling cruelty” during lockdown. Arthur died in June 2020 after being deprived of food, force-fed salt and assaulted, in abuse that was filmed and photographed by his stepmother and father. Anita Banerjee from the Crown Prosecution Service, said that “instead of love and protection”, Star “experienced a world of humiliation, cruelty and pain at the hands of those who should have protected her most”. “Our thoughts remain with Star’s family, as they have been throughout.”