AS families prepare to celebrate Christmas, the great-grandfather of Star Hobson will be reflecting on another year without his “bundle of joy”.
David Fawcett and his partner Anita Smith spent only one Christmas with little Star, but they created memories that will last forever.
Star died from catastrophic abdominal injuries caused by blunt force trauma on September 22, 2020. She was 16 months old.
Savannah Brockhill, the girlfriend of Star's mother Frankie Smith, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years for the murder of Star at their flat in Wesley Place, Keighley.
Meanwhile, Smith was initially jailed for eight years for causing, or allowing, her death following a trial which concluded at Bradford Crown Court on December 15, 2021.
She was cleared of murder and manslaughter but convicted of causing or allowing the death of her daughter.
Her sentence was extended to 12 years by the Court of Appeal last spring.
Remembering Star's personality, David told the Telegraph & Argus: “She came down here Christmas day. She was living up the road. She came down here and it was just lovely to see her. She was just getting her own little personality. She was starting to smile.
“After Christmas she came to live with us. She was just a bundle of joy. She just lit up our lives.
“We had three months and that was the best time we had. It’s hard to think she’s gone. Not a day goes by where I don’t think about Star.
“It’s just the memories of Star being with us.
“At the time Anita used to do a morning paper round and take little Star with her. She used to go out every morning in her pram and all the neighbours, everybody got to know her. She’d be coming along in her little pushchair.
“I couldn’t wait to come from work to see her. Anita would be at the window like ‘Oh look Granddad’s there’. Her face lit up. It’s priceless. You don’t think they’re ever going to end.
“We’ll never get over it. We’ll learn to live with it.
“I love to watch videos, pictures. Anita, she’s different, it just upsets her. We put flowers on her grave every week. It’s heartbreaking.”
Star loved listening to music during her stay with her great-grandparents.
“Anita used to pick her up and dance around the kitchen with her,” said David.
“She had a little baby walker she used to sit in and go across the kitchen and dance up land down to the tunes. It was brilliant.
“She used to stare, that was the thing I’ll never forget. She’d look at me and she’d be staring at you and you’d look away and she’d still be staring.
“I’ve got lots of photographs. I’d like to have got a lot more. The photographs I got of Star, some kids they can’t sit still, she’d just look. She was just fantastic to photograph because she’d be so still and look at you.
“A lot of the photographs I’d have loved to have got, we never got. She’s only about 14 months, that’s probably the last one I got. It’s just so sad.
“We just had that one Christmas. I used to get Anita - we haven’t done it since - I always used to get a wheelbarrow with all the presents in it. That particular year Star was down here. We picked Star up, sat her in the wheelbarrow amongst the presents and she’s playing with little gift tags and ribbons. I just managed to get a couple of pictures of her. That’s always going to be one of the Christmas memories.
“That wheelbarrow’s been in the family for about 20 years.
“When I see things going off at Christmas like Shipley Glen Tramway, it’s things like that really upset us as we used to love doing things like that with kids. On the front of the train it’s got a big star. That would have been perfect for Star.
“Star did have a big massive impact on our lives. I’m so glad I got to meet her.
“For the rest of my life I’ll just think that little short space we had with Star, it’s up there at the top. I once said if we could bottle that time we had Star, I could just keep opening the bottle and reliving that part over and over again.
“People have been absolutely wonderful even strangers that don’t even know us. It’s things like that which keep us going.”
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