Report Due in Case of Logan Mwangi
Child Practice Review will shine spotlight on role of professionals
The involvement of health, education and police services in the life of Logan Mwangi will come under the spotlight today.
The five-year-old was murdered by his family and dumped in the River Ogmore in Bridgend in July 2021.
A Child Practice Review into the murder will be published this morning by Cwm Taf Morgannwg Safeguarding Board
Logan was murdered by his mother, stepfather and a 14-year-old boy.
The review will look at the involvement of all professionals in Logan's life and what can be improved in future.
It follows a report that raised "serious concerns" about children's services in Bridgend.
In April this year, jurors found Logan's mother 31-year-old Angharad Williamson guilty of murder and perverting the course of justice.
Logan's step-dad 40-year-old John Cole was found guilty of murder, he had already admitted perverting the course of justice.
A 14-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons was also found guilty of murder and perverting the course of justice.
What happened to Logan Mwangi?
Logan was found in River Ogmore in Sarn, Bridgend at 5.45am on July 31, 2021.
His body was just 400 yards from the family home having been allegedly "fly-tipped like rubbish".
He was found with 56 external injuries as well as trauma to the brain, a torn liver and degloving of a part of his small intestine.
After the trial police released footage of the family after they reported Logan missing:
Medical experts said Logan's injuries were such that they were compared to a "fall from a great height" or a "high velocity road traffic collision".
In her closing speech to the jury, prosecutor Caroline Rees QC said Logan had been kept "like a prisoner" after developing Covid for the 10 days before his death.
She said: "He had been kept like a prisoner in his small bedroom - a room described by Angharad Williamson as 'like a dungeon' with the curtains closed and a barred child's gate stopping him from moving about the rest of the flat.
"That little boy was being made to face a wall as food was being delivered so other members of the house did not catch covid. What must have he thought of the way his life was in these 10 days?
"He was dehumanised by each of the defendants."
Cole and the youth were accused of moving Logan's body to the river while Williamson allegedly tried to remove incriminating evidence from the house and wash bloodstained bedsheets.
Here's the 999 call made by Logan's mother Angharad Williamson:
Williamson and the youth denied murder and perverting the course of justice. Cole denied murder but admitted perverting the course of justice.
Williamson and Cole also denied causing or allowing the death of a child.
The Logan Mwangi trial
Police outside the family home of five-year-old Logan Williamson, also know as Logan Mwangi, in Bridgend, south Wales.
The view of the River Ogmore in Sarn, Bridgend, Wales, in the vicinity where the body of five-year-old Logan Mwangi was discovered on July 31 2021. This area was visited by the jury, during his murder trial at Cardiff Crown Court.
Police Forensics enter a house on Lower Llansantffraid, Sarn. During the trial, it has been revealed that Police Forensics found Logan's blood on his Paw Patrol duvet and pillow. His blood was also present on bedsheets found by police in the family's tumble dryer.
Tributes left at the scene of Logan Williamson's death at Pandy Park, Bridgend on the 2nd August 2021 - a few days after his body was discovered.
Court artist sketch of Angharad Williamson, 30, and her partner, John Cole, 39, in the dock at Cardiff Crown Court. This couple, along with a 14-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were charged with killing five-year-old Logan Mwangi, the son of Williamson, who was found dead on the bank of the River Ogmore near his home village of Sarn in Bridgend County on July 31 2021. The three were also charged with perverting the course of justice.
Scale of abuse revealed
Whilst on trial at Cardiff Crown Court, mother Angharad Williamson, 30, admitted she knew that her partner Cole had abused him. In one instance, Williamson had told police in interviews that Cole had repeatedly punched the 5-year-old and encouraged the 14-year-old boy to also get involved. However, all three defendants denied both the charge of murder and perverting the course of justice by moving Mwangi's body to the river.
Court sketch artist of John Cole giving evidence during the trial. Cole denied his murder charge but admitted to perverting the course of justice, telling the court that he disposed of Logan's body in the River Ogmore.
What came out in court?
The court case has been ongoing for over eight weeks with the jury sworn in back on the 15th February.
During the court case, the jury was told that when officers arrived at the house, Logan's mother Angharad Williamson was cleaning sheets, the prosecution suggested it could have been to wash away her son's blood.
Investigations into the sheets following the family's arrest found that they had trace amounts of Logan's blood.
Angharad Williamson's evidence
Jurors were read transcripts of Williamson's police interviews, in which she repeatedly insisted she had found Logan's room empty in the early hours of July 31.
Cole claims Williamson found the little boy dead in his bed and that, after unsuccessfully performing CPR, they made the decision "to get him out of the house".
Williamson told police over the course of three interviews that she had no idea how her son received his fatal injuries.
She insisted that Cole was a great dad and had never been violent towards her or Logan.
In a final interview on August 4 2021, Williamson claimed two days before his death Cole had punched Logan several times to the stomach and "sent him flying".
She added that Cole had goaded the 14-year-old defendant into joining in the attack.
When asked why she was only revealing this now, she replied: "Jay is SAS, he'll have me killed."
She added: "His parents were the founding members of the SAS, I could never leave him, he told me if I ever left him he would have me killed.
"I'm terrified of him."
When pressed on her previous lies by interviewing officer Detective Sergeant Christian Burt, Williamson replied: "What part of 'I'm scared, this man is in the SAS' don't you understand?"
She claimed that after punching Logan three or four times, Cole had lifted the little boy's t-shirt up to see the bruise and remarked "that's a good one".
Williamson told police: "(Logan) wasn't crying, he was just standing there and he took it, I was mortified I didn't take him straight to hospital."
She added that she initially thought Logan might have run away in the wake of the assault.
Williamson said that after the attack on Logan, Cole had turned to the youth defendant and told him to "sweep" him if the victim were to "flinch one more time when I am trying to talk to him".
The defendant claimed she had checked Logan over and claimed he had only suffered some red marks as a result of the two assaults.
The night Logan died
John Cole and the youth defendant were caught on CCTV leaving the flat around 2.45am on July 31, Cole was filmed carrying something in his arms, which he later admitted was Logan's lifeless body.
During this time, a light can be seen switching on and off in the kitchen, which the prosecution said proves Williamson was awake and knew what had happened to her son.
Williamson claimed that the switch got stuck sometimes, and repeated that she had been asleep throughout.
When pressed, she responded: "I was not awake, I did not switch the light off, if I was awake I could have saved Logan, how many times do I have to tell you?"
The jury also heard how the 14-year-old boy told a care worker two weeks after the killing that he loved "to punch kids in the head", calling it "orgasmic".
They were told how he had a "desire for violence" and spoke of killing people.
In statements read to the court , the former foster family of the 14 year old said he had made their lives "hell" during the several weeks he lived with them last summer and that they were "terrified" of him.
They also said that on a number of occasions the youth had told them he wanted to kill Logan, but when they raised the concerns with the youth's social worker, she dismissed their claims.
The senior social worker for Bridgend County Council, denied any knowledge of the threats while being cross-examined.
Images from the trial
Logan's last days
Logan Mwangi was aged 5 when he died. Prior to his death, Mwangi had been self-isolating for ten days after testing positive for coronavirus. During the trial, the prosecution argued that the child was treated like "a prisoner", being made to stay in his room.
Child goes missing
Between July 28th and 31st, 5-year old Mwangi died at his home in Sarn, in South Wales. His body was then moved from the house in Lower Llantsanffraid to the River Ogmore in nearby Pandy Park, where he was later discovered on July 31st.
Post-mortem examination reveals abuse
After his body was discovered, Logan Mwangi was taken for a post-mortem examination. Wearing mismatched pyjamas, a coroner said that the 5-year old has suffered 'catastrophic' internal injuries caused by a 'brutal and sustained' assault consistent with child abuse.
Tributes paid to Logan
Logan's death shocked the local community, and many offered their sympathies to the child. Meanwhile, attention turned to the Mwangi's parents and their role in his death. Police investigations led to the arrest of Logan's mother Angharad Williamson, her partner John Cole and a 14-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Scale of abuse revealed
Whilst on trial at Cardiff Crown Court, mother Angharad Williamson, 30, admitted she knew that her partner Cole had abused him. In one instance, Williamson had told police in interviews that Cole had repeatedly punched the 5-year-old and encouraged the 14-year-old boy to also get involved. However, all three defendants denied both the charge of murder and perverting the course of justice by moving Mwangi's body to the river.