One of The Worst Cases I’ve Worked On!

  Oh, Sonny, he’s not breathing. He’s not here.  Okay, take a breath. When did you see him last?  I saw him in the back last night. I just got up. Oh, Sonny, he’s still in the back LAST NIGHT. LOGAN!  OKAY, TAKE A BREATH. HE’S FINE AND HE’S GONE. Can you see anything closer?  LOGAN! NO!  I NEED I NEED YOU TO SPEAK TO ME, NOT JUST SHOUTING.

 I KNOW it’s really full on and it’s really scary.  Logan! Logan!  Um  If he’s unconscious, he needs me. He needs warm clothes. He needs Mom.  He needs a blanket. It’s okay.  I feel so useless, Stan.    I know.  This is all my fault. HE’S UNCONSCIOUS. WHY IS HE UNCONSCIOUS?  LISTEN, I DON’T KNOW. I don’t know.

Right now, the best THING  ALL I’M GETTING IS ANSWERS LIKE THESE. WHY IS NO ONE TELLING ME WHAT’S GOING  I DON’T KNOW. SWEETHEART, LOOK.  He’s my baby. What’s going on?  Hold on. We need to do our job.  I’m under arrest.  Just do as you’re told, please.  All right.  I think what’s happening is wrong.

 I know.  Get the out of my way.  Hey, hey. Come on now.  I’m not messing. Get out of my way.  arrest, okay?    All right, John. I’m arresting you on suspicion of the murder of Logan.  What?  I’m arresting you as well. All right?  Hold on.  I’m talking.  Why am I getting arrested? I don’t know anything about his injuries.

 If I did, I’d taken him to a hospital.  We are trying to find out what happened to Logan. Our priority is finding out the truth.  Three or four times in the stomach.  Cuz he wouldn’t talk. Jay said the only way this boy understands is pain.  Is there anything you’d like to add or ask?  Yeah, can you tell my mom to off for me? Why is that? Because she’s blaming me and my dad for everything when we haven’t done anything. Neither has my dad.

 Now, I’m just sick of this. She’s just saying whatever she wants to get out of the cells.    Who dehumanized Logan with their treatment Angharad Williamson and John Cole.  Dear Logan, we  miss you. Your smile, your bright big eyes,  your laughter, and your silliness.  Logan was a little boy    who was seriously let down by those adults he was living with    and who had his childhood um completely cut short  in the cruelest and most savage possible way.

This is just all incredible and it just shows the    manipulative quality of of some people, especially some criminal people who have actually now committed one of the most heinous crimes that you can imagine.  It actually  makes you feel physically sick when you    you know that something like that has happened or something that unexplained but is not looking  good has happened.

 It there is a physical reaction. I would say and I certainly  felt it. And judging by the way that people  I spoke to or others spoke to me, um I would say that  they also had a a physical reaction.  It’s difficult to imagine how Logan must have suffered at the hands    of those who he trusted and inconceivable that those who should have loved and protected him betrayed him in the worst possible way.

 Logan was the most beautiful  was the most beautiful boy whose life was tragically had been tragically cut short. The world is a colder and darker place  without his smile and happy energy in which to live his life. The hole that has been left  in the hearts of all those of all who knew and loved him will never be filled.

 No amount of time can heal  the wounds that have been inflicted.  Uh summarizing this case,    she said the injuries inflicted on Logan were nothing short of horrifying.    Yeah, and awarding that some of the detail really is quite disturbing. 5-year-old Logan Mwangi,    he had suffered uh what doctors described as catastrophic injuries, 56 of them in  total, uh including injuries to his internal organs, including his brain uh and liver.

 He had suffered severe uh bruising.  56 injuries. That’s what the pathologist counted on the body of a 5-year-old boy. A torn liver, trauma consistent with a high-speed car crash, and wounds that had already started to heal. Meaning this had gone on for days, maybe weeks, and no one had stopped it. He weighed under 40 lb, less than the average 3-year-old, even though he was 5.

He was dressed  in mismatched pajamas, thrown on in the dark in a hurry, because in that moment, nobody was thinking about matching them up. There was no water in his lungs. That meant he was already dead before he ever went into the river, and whoever put him there went home afterward and went to sleep.

His name was Logan Mwangi.    The adults who were supposed to protect him knew where he was long before the police ever started looking. To understand how a 5-year-old ends up in a river, you have to go back to where his short life began, to the two people who brought him into it. Angharad Williamson grew up in Essex in a comfortable home.

Her father worked as a stockbroker. Money was never an issue. Private school, later a film course in college. Ben Mwangi had come to Britain from Kenya and worked as a bookmaker nearby, also in Essex. A quiet, reserved man. They met in 2014 and stayed together for almost 2 years until Angharad got pregnant. Close to her due date, she moved back to Wales to her mother Claire, and Ben followed soon after, settling in Bridgend to be near his son before he was even born.

On March 15th, 2016,  at Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend, their son was born. They named him Logan.     The relationship ended shortly after his birth, and Ben went back to Essex. But he didn’t even get to be a long-distance father for long. By the end of that same year, Angharad had remarried, and her new husband made it clear that Ben wasn’t welcome in his son’s life anymore.

The calls stopped. The visits stopped. For the next 3 years, Ben barely saw his son. That husband was in the military, and not much is known about the relationship itself, except the one thing that matters, he was violent toward Angharad. Logan was two, maybe three at the time, too young to remember the details, but not too young to grow up in a house where it was happening.

 Still, people who knew Angharad in that period described her as a caring mother, anxious, maybe overprotective, but caring. Nobody doubted that she loved her son. For his first two years, Logan lived with his mother in his grandmother Claire’s house, all three of them under one roof. And Claire remembered him as bright, full of life, someone it was simply a joy to be around.

Later, Angharad got her own place, but that didn’t change anything with her mother. Claire kept taking him for weekends, letting him stay over, coming up with something new every time he visited. Because he picked things up instantly and was ready to learn the next thing by morning. He’d come running through her front door, arms wide open, and she’d catch him every time.

 The marriage to the military husband lasted about 3 years,  and by early 2019, they divorced. Almost immediately, Angharad started letting Ben back into their son’s life. That spring, she even drove Logan to Essex to see his father. The first time in 3 years, and Ben later said he tried to soak in every minute of it.

It felt, finally, like he might get to be a father in more than just name. That chance didn’t last long. In the spring of 2019, at a pub in Bridgend, 28-year-old Angharad met 40-year-old John Cole.    They spent that first night together, and that was all it took for everything to move fast. Within weeks, he was practically living in her house, and Angharad was telling friends she’d finally found the one, her fairy tale.

It’s hard not to think that one phone call to the police, months before anything happened, could have ended that fairy tale on the spot. Cole had a criminal record that told a very different story. Convictions for assault, burglary, drug possession, witness intimidation. As a young man, he’d been a member of the National Front, a far-right political group, and according to people who knew him, he held openly racist views, views that would soon shape how he treated Angharad’s son.

 She thought she’d finally found her person. That fall, not long after John moved in, Logan started reception class at Tondu Primary School. His teacher, Catherine Richards, saw the same thing in him every day. A bright, polite little boy, completely absorbed in whatever he was doing. Someone who made the classroom feel lighter just by being in it.

He had a slight stutter, but it never stopped him from talking constantly and full of energy.  This is where Logan was taught in reception class, and this is his funeral card, where where  which we kept. This is actually Logan’s handwriting,  and at the time he was learning to write his name.

 Logan was an absolutely fantastic boy, and we loved him so much. We wanted to put this  tribute on the wall to him. There’s a photograph of him just before he died, with  a lovely poem. And we put him in one of the stars in the sky, which we thought was the a lovely thing to  do.    To lose a child is one of the worst things that can ever happen to anybody, especially    in a school, anywhere.

So, we wanted to remember him, and the children wanted to have a little garden    that they could use. And the Tondy Wheelers community group of cyclists    bought us a buddy bench for both sites or on two sites. Um and the children have really enjoyed  using that.

 It is like a little friendship bench or if somebody’s feeling a bit sad, they can sit with their friends. So, it’s been a wonderful thing to have.    He was an absolutely gorgeous little boy. A cheeky smile, talking all the time. He loved to talk.  We saw him the last Wednesday before he died. Uh my deputy and I came down and had a lovely time with him.

 He was playing Welly Wednesday and it was lovely.    Um he was very much part of our school family. Um and we we’re still missing him now.  At home, during that same  period, things looked very different. Friends and neighbors began noticing how John treated the same boy whose smile lit up his classroom.

 And that stutter the teacher mentioned got worse whenever John was around. John almost never called Logan by his name. Instead, he gave him a nickname that referred to the color of his skin and said it as casually as if it were an ordinary pet name. The size difference between them was staggering. A grown man nearly 6 ft 5 and a 5-year-old who, by the time he died, weighed under 40 lb.

 According to neighbors, John made Logan hold a plank position for long stretches and this wasn’t a one-time thing. It happened again and again. A 3-year-old’s arms would start shaking almost immediately. And when they finally gave out and he collapsed  to the floor, he’d be told to get up and start over.

 On other days, Logan was made to stand on the front  steps, holding onto the railing for 30 minutes at a time. Punished for things he sometimes didn’t even understand he’d done. 30 minutes  is a long time for a 3-year-old. long enough for his legs to go numb and his fingers to lose feeling on that railing before he was finally allowed to sit down.

A family friend named Callum Williams described one such evening in court. The family had ordered Chinese takeout that night, like they often did, but Logan wasn’t allowed any of it.    Instead, they set a bowl of dry cereal in front of him, surrounded by plates of hot food because, as the adults explained, he’d misbehaved.

 A 5-year old eating alone at the same table  where everyone else was eating hot food and talking to each other. There’s something particularly hard to sit with in that image. Not the punishment itself, but that it happened in plain sight of the entire family  at the same table, like it was just how things were.

With John in the house,    history repeated itself. Logan’s relationship with his father, only just starting to rebuild, broke down again.    The same pattern as 3 years earlier with the military husband. First, the calls stopped,  then the visits. But this time, John went further than that husband ever had.

 He started deciding who else Logan was allowed to see, including his own grandmother. Claire, the woman he used to run to with his arms wide open, the one who taught him something new every visit, saw him less and less until their time together became  rare, then almost nonexistent. For the first time in his short life, Logan didn’t have a single adult in his corner who didn’t live under the same roof as John.

John had a stepson, Craig Mulligan, son of John’s ex-partner Rebecca, raised by John since early childhood, and someone who idolized him the way you idolize the one adult you’re desperate to please, willing to do anything to earn his approval. In video games, he went by the name King Hulk, a name that said everything about how he saw himself.

Rebecca had spent years  explaining away her inability to care for her son with a cancer diagnosis she never actually had.    In the spring of 2020, at the start of the pandemic, she and Craig moved into the house with John and Angharad. Logan, meanwhile, looked up to Craig the way a young child looks up to an older brother.

   To a four-year-old, an older boy felt larger than life, someone to admire. Craig  didn’t feel the same way back. On August 16th, Angharad brought four-year-old Logan to the hospital. She said he’d fallen down the stairs the night before, and that she’d spent an entire day trying to handle it herself,    trying to pop his arm back into place before finally giving up and taking him to the emergency room.

Doctors found a fractured shoulder and a bruise on his cheek. The pediatrician who examined him took 31 photographs of other injuries on his body. Not one of those 31 photos ever left the hospital. Doctors reported it to social services, and police checked who else lived in the house.

 They found out John had a criminal record that included an assault on a child. The report  noted he wasn’t fit to care for Logan alone, but since there was another adult in the house, that was considered enough. Nothing further was done. Around the same time, staff at school noticed a bruise on Logan’s face. He told them it was an accident, that he’d been hit with a toy gun while playing with John.

There was another incident, too. Logan got his clothes dirty, burst into tears, and begged his teacher to throw them away so his mom wouldn’t find out. A five-year-old who already understood that some things were better kept hidden from his own mother. That same winter, Craig’s mother hit him, and he was removed from her care and placed in foster care.

 She wouldn’t be part of his life again. Around the same time, Angharad called the police with a different version of the stair fall from the year before. Now claiming Craig had confessed to pushing Logan. That confession triggered a child protection review. Not into Logan, the child who’d been pushed down the stairs, but into Craig, the one who’d done it.

In March, Logan was finally placed on the child protection register,  and social workers were required to visit every 10 days. During one of those visits, a social worker noticed a burn on Logan’s neck. Angharad showed her a photo of the bathroom tap  and said the boy had burned himself on it. The social worker asked Logan directly, and the 5-year-old repeated the same story. The tap had been too hot.

In reality, the burn had come from a heated spoon that Angharad pressed to his neck herself. And her son, protecting her, had learned someone else’s lie about his own pain and repeated it back. The social worker  accepted the tap explanation, and the decision not to pursue it further was written up in official language.

 The threshold for child protection procedures had not been met due to limited medical information. Reading that sentence now, knowing what came next, it’s impossible to shake the feeling that behind that bureaucratic phrasing was a real 5-year-old that nobody believed. 13 days later, Logan was taken off the child protection register.

There was no follow-up plan. Soon after, social services officially determined he was no longer at risk. Later, once it was all over, an official report came out, the child practice review. It laid out everything that had gone wrong, apologized, and promised to fix the systemic failures. It specifically noted that the family had used COVID as cover to dodge scrutiny and that no single agency had ever pieced together the full picture even though each of them held a piece of it.

 My son even bought my baby clothes.  Okay, take a breath. When did you see him last?  I thought he was with MY MOTHER. NO, NO.  OKAY, TAKE A BREATH. THE FACT THAT WE WERE unable to protect Logan will always remain a source of great sadness and we are deeply sorry that our safeguarded and protection endeavors did not prevent his death.

Mr. Mwangi, Logan’s dad, was not told his son was on the child protection register. As a council, we apologize unreservedly that this was the case.    He’s unconscious. He needs me. He needs warm clothes. He needs mom. He needs his love. Why is no one telling me what to do?  No, no.  This review amongst a number of other findings identifies service failures where agencies could and should have acted differently.

For these failures, we take  full responsibility and apologize.  COVID-19 and the need to restrict contact to prevent the spread of infection was believed to have been used  instrumentally by the family to evade scrutiny by agencies. Within the University Health Board concerned, the panel believed  to have seen evidence of a culture in which staff are reluctant to challenge  the clinical assessments and decisions made by more qualified professionals.

 This tragedy has shown that the multi-agency safeguarding help was not able at the time    to deliver information sharing, case discussion, and decision-making. No agency was ever able to develop a full picture of what was  happening despite all agencies having important pieces of information.  Firstly, we apologize to Logan’s family.

We apologize to his family, to all of those who knew him and loved him. We apologize for the failures in our systems that could have presented earlier opportunities to recognize abuse and to protect Logan.  While Craig was in foster care, witnesses heard him say he wanted to kill Logan. John and Angharad knew about it and applied for custody of Craig anyway.

A review like that usually takes months.    This one took weeks. On July 26th, 2021, the temporary supervision order on Craig was lifted and the family court ruled he’d go back to living with his stepfather. Logan had 5 days left to live. A few days before Craig came home, Logan tested positive for COVID and was isolated in his room.

 A baby gate at the door, the windows covered so no light would show from outside, food passed through the doorway while he was told to face the wall so he wouldn’t see it being set down. Shortly before Craig’s return, one of John’s friends saw Logan on a video call. The boy was sitting on the stairs coloring a picture looking happy.

No one outside the family ever saw him alive again. Three days after Craig moved back in, John punched Logan in the stomach several times and when the boy tried to get up, John told Craig to sweep his legs out from under him. A move Craig had been practicing in Muay Thai. Logan fell and hit his head on the floor.

At trial, Angharad gave her own account of that night. She said it started with an argument over a spilled drink on the stereo, that John lost his temper, and that’s when he hit Logan. She said she’d wanted to leave him, and that’s when John told her something she’d later repeat in court.  During the trial, Logan’s mother claimed that an argument over a spilled drink on a stereo had escalated quickly and led to the 5-year-old being punched twice in the stomach by his stepfather.

 After that, he was still alive. He stayed alive for hours, all through the next day, July 30th. The curtains in his room never opened. No one called a doctor. No one called an ambulance. If someone had, Logan’s chances of survival were 80%. That number isn’t an abstraction from a medical report. It’s a simple fact.

Almost until the very end, he had a chance to live, and the people around him could have given him that chance and didn’t. He died that Friday evening alone in his own room, a few feet from people who knew exactly what was happening to him. At 2:43 in the morning, a security camera on a neighboring house caught two men walking out through the back gate and heading toward the river, one of them carrying something over his shoulders.

At the same time, the light in Logan’s bedroom window kept switching on and off.      

       Angharad was the only one left in the flat.  

  John and Craig came back at 2:51.     

 Then left again at 3:16, empty-handed this time.      And we’re home again 5 minutes later.  They’d gone back to get rid of Logan’s torn pajama top, the one he’d been wearing 2 days earlier. By then, he’d already been dressed in different sleepwear, dinosaur pajama pants and a Spider-Man top that didn’t match because in the rush, nobody was thinking about matching them up.

   Around 5:00 in the morning, a neighbor named Paula woke up to the sound of a fight through the wall. A woman’s voice shouting something about a missing son. A man’s voice insisting he hadn’t done anything. She’d later describe it as the sound of pure panic. About 45 minutes passed  before a call came in to emergency services.

Angharad screaming that Logan was gone, that the back gate was open, that he had no shoes or socks on, suggesting Craig’s mother might have taken him out of spite over losing custody. While police were on their way, John sat on the floor rolling cigarettes and Craig was in his room playing Xbox, yelling at other players over his headset.

 He was losing the match, and that seemed to bother him more than the screaming through the wall. Angharad went outside and stopped a stranger on the street, asking if he’d seen her son. It didn’t take long to find him after that. Prosecutors would later say the call sounded like a grieving mother, but was, in fact, a performance to save herself.

 Please, please, please, help me, please.  Where are you?  My son is not here. My little BOY IS NOT HERE.  TAKE A BREATH. TAKE A BREATH CUZ I CAN’T understand you when you’re crying. Where are you?  Five. Logan is not here. I I  Logan what, sorry?  Logan is not here. Sean said that someone is not here.

 Sean said that someone is not here.  Who’s not there?  My son, he’s not my baby. He’s not here.  Okay, take a breath. When did you see him last?  I saw him in the bed last night. I don’t know. I just got up, but my son, he’s here. HE’S NOT HERE. LOGAN.  OKAY, TAKE A BREATH. HE’S FIVE and he’s gone.

 Can you SEE HIM ANYWHERE?  LOGAN. LOGAN.  I NEED I NEED YOU TO SPEAK TO ME, NOT to shout. I know it’s really full on, and it’s really scary. What me. What’s his name? Is his name Logan?  Logan Logan Williams,  And he’s five Is he five, did you say?  He’s five, please.  Tell me what he looks like, please.    He’s a little mixed-race boy.

 He’s just got his Spidey pajamas on.  When police called to say Logan had been found and was being taken to the hospital, Angharad and John had a brief exchange. She said they should bring his toys, and he said the hospital would have some. An ordinary sentence about ordinary things, and there was something genuinely chilling about it, given that both of them already knew exactly why the ambulance was really there.

 He’s unconscious. He needs me. He needs warm clothes. He needs his I feel so useless.  I know.  It’s not my fault. I’m not allowed to see my own biological son.  Angharad, LOOK.  HE’S UNCONSCIOUS. WHY IS HE UNCONSCIOUS?  LISTEN, I DON’T KNOW. I don’t know. Right now, THE BEST THING  ALL I’M GETTING IS ANSWERS LIKE THIS.

WHY IS NO ONE TELLING ME WHAT TO DO?  I DON’T KNOW. SWEETHEART, LOOK.  He’s my baby. What’s going on?  We need to do our job. Yeah.    At the hospital, a nurse noticed that every time Angharad thought someone was watching, she’d lean down and kiss her son’s forehead.

 But the moment the nurse looked away, the gesture stopped. Among the items recovered from the apartment and sent for forensic testing was a child’s pillow with a cartoon rescue puppy print  stained with blood. The autopsy confirmed what investigators already suspected. 56 external injuries, a torn liver, brain trauma.

 A picture of the pathologist compared to a high-speed head-on collision. Some of the wounds had already started to heal, meaning the abuse had gone on for more than a week. A prosecutor would later put it simply, a 5-year-old’s body discarded in a river like garbage.  Even for experienced prosecutors and police, the details of Logan’s murder will be hard to forget.

 The situation  is very traumatic when you see a cold, calculated murder of this nature. It does impact on people, there’s no doubt about that. People are trained to deal with that.    Um in this particular instance, the case became difficult because not only had these people  committed a horrific crime against a defenseless 5-year-old child, but then uh conspired together to dump that body  in a river, lie to the police by phoning them to try and put them off their tracks, continued those lies in

interview, which  meant uh they were blaming each other, and the picture of what actually had happened was really difficult to ascertain.  On August 1st, all three were arrested. When the officer read John his rights, he shouted that he hadn’t done anything wrong.    So, see you John, okay? All right, John.

Right. We’ve got something I want to speak to    you. What I need to tell you now, okay? 1822 I’m arresting  you on suspicion of the murder of Logan.  What?  You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defense if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court.

 Anything you say may be given in evidence.    Necessity for my arrest today is for prompt prompt effective investigation, protect vulnerable person, and prevent the loss of stolen property. Just want to let you know this week. Okay?    Anne Herads’ arrest played out differently.

 She didn’t insist she was innocent.  She demanded to know why nobody was helping her find her son.  Why am I getting arrested?  Right, do you want to have a sit down over there in a minute, Anne? Right, have a sit down by here in a minute, Anne Herad. Have a sit by here now. I’m just Sit DOWN OVER THERE. RIGHT, DO YOU WANT TO HAVE A SIT DOWN OVER THERE IN A MINUTE, all right? Don’t want you falling down, right? Have a sit down by there, okay? Okay?    Right, you are under arrest on suspicion of murder, is that okay?

   You do not You do not have to say anything, but it may help your defense if you do not mention one question, something which relates to the murder Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Necessity for the arrest, okay? It’s to prevent loss of property, to allow a prompt and effective investigation, and to protect vulnerable  persons and children, okay? Okay, it’s just part of the investigation.

Okay?  Where is Logan? Where is Logan, please?  He’s still He’s still with us in the He’s still He’s still in the hospital with doctors.  What happened to him?   Can’t explain anything further at the moment.  Why is nobody talking to me? You’re supposed to be helping FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED, NOT ARRESTING ME WHEN I’M TELLING YOU MY SON IS DEAD.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE HELPING ME.  ANHARAD, I understand you’re upset. I understand.  IF YOUR SON DIED, IF YOUR SON BEEN FOUND IN THE RIVER.  ANHARAD, we we understand you’re very upset. We’ve got an investigation.  I’M GRIEVING. I’VE I’VE JUST LOST MY SON.

 YOU’RE TAKING MY OTHER CHILDREN AWAY.  In the interview room, the picture started coming together. Anharad  claimed she’d slept through the entire night. Investigators showed her the footage, the lights in Logan’s room switching on and off while she was supposedly asleep, and she said it must have been an automatic sensor. Then they played her the full clip, a figure at the back gate carrying something over their shoulders.

 Asked to explain it, she asked them to turn the video off, said she didn’t want to watch,    and a second later quietly admitted it was her son. At the hospital, seeing his body, she’d claimed she didn’t recognize him, that his injuries had changed him too much, even though she’d put him to bed perfectly healthy just 2 days earlier.

Her phone told a different story.    She’d been active online all night. It wasn’t until investigators told her that John had already blamed her for everything that she started telling the truth, not all of it. The word she used for her own guilt was one word, neglect.  Logan Mwangi was a happy and loving boy, but small for his age and vulnerable, weighing only three stone.

 He was helpless as his stepdad John Cole and 13-year-old stepbrother Craig Mulligan beat him mercilessly with his own mother’s encouragement. In custody, Anharad Williamson continued with the act.  Then then I woke up and Logan wasn’t there.   Neither Williamson or Cole could explain how Logan was found with injuries likened to those that would be caused by a high-speed car crash.

 He had 56 external injuries as well as a fractured shoulder and significant trauma to the brain.    Confronted with the mounting evidence against them, they turned on each other.  He’s on the floor and he’s sprawling and grabbing him sporty. She’s picked him up by his t-shirt. It’s ripped.  None of it is true.

 Why would John lie?  Because John’s a liar. Cuz he doesn’t want to get done for murder. I wish I never let this man into my my son’s life.    For investigators, a picture  began to emerge of Cole as a racist bully. He was a former member of the far right National Front and would refer to Logan by a racist name.

 The judge said he dehumanized his stepson and regularly made him stand outside  in the cold.  I didn’t knock on mommy’s door.  I know.  13-year-old  Craig Mulligan had only been allowed to move into the house by a family court judge 5 days earlier,    despite the fact he’d already threatened to kill Logan, who’d only been taken off the child protection register the previous month.

At the station, he was equally a part of the lies and deception.  I don’t know anything about his injuries. If I did, I’d have taken him to a hospital.  We are trying to find out what happened to Logan.  Our priority is finding out the truth.  Jay hit  Three or four times.  And this double kick cuz he wouldn’t talk.

Jay said the only way  this boy understands is pain. The trial opened on February 21st,  2022 in Cardiff. All three denied murder and blamed each other. Angharad described her relationship with her son as something beautiful, said they’d been close, that he was her little buddy,    and claimed she’d stayed silent about the abuse for so long because John told her he’d served in the special forces  and threatened to kill her if she talked.

 The beginning of the end of 5-year-old Logan Mwangi’s life was an argument over who spilled a drink on a stereo.  His mother, Angharad Williamson, told a court that row between her and Logan’s stepfather, Jay Cole, escalated quickly.    Jay suggested the little boy found the argument funny, and when Logan smirked, she claimed the 40-year-old punched him twice in the stomach.

   She sobbed while describing seeing her son fall to the floor. Giving evidence at her trial, Logan’s mother said, “I’d  had enough. He’s crossed a line hurting Logan.” Asked if she had told Cole she wanted to leave him, she  said, “I told him that a bit later.” She claimed he said, “If we break up because of Logan, I’m going to kill him.

” The day after the attack, she said Logan did not appear to be in pain. She put him to bed that night, and when she woke up early the next day, he was gone. The prosecution then suggested that her story was a sham. Angharad replied saying that she couldn’t fake feelings. She’d been scared.

 Her worst nightmare had come true. Logan, she said, had gone, and she didn’t know where. When initially interviewed by police, she did not tell them about the assault on her son. She claimed it was because she feared her partner as he told her he was in the SAS and had been in prison. Logan’s body was found in the River Ogmore 2 days after the attack.

 His mother, stepfather, and a 14-year-old boy all deny murdering the 5-year-old.  John had never served in any special forces unit. It was just one of many lies he told about himself. The judge excluded part of John’s criminal history from the trial, including his ties to the far-right party, ruling it too old to be relevant, so the jury never heard about it.

Before the trial, in a documentary interview, Craig had already given his version of that night.  Woke up in the middle of the night. Then Dad come into the living room with me. I know we weren’t meant to do it, but we grabbed some of the rubbish in the back garden, and we chucked it in the river.

 Now, it was all in like black bags and everything. I don’t know what was in the bags at the time. I don’t remember. And then about 20 minutes after, we went back out to check whether they’d gone down. We didn’t say anything. We were trying to be as quiet as we could, cuz we didn’t want to wake Logan or and her. And I don’t know whether Logan was still there at that point, cuz we didn’t look.

 In police interviews, Craig showed the same lack of remorse. When asked if he had anything to add, he asked to send a message to his mother instead.  Is there anything you’d like to add or not?  Yeah, can you tell my mom to call for me?  Why is that?  Because she’s blaming me and my dad for everything, when we haven’t done anything. Neither has my dad.

 Now, I’m just sick of this. She’s just saying whatever she wants to get out of the cells.    Standing on the steps of Cardiff Crown Court today, Logan’s father, Ben Wengie, paid tribute to his son.  The wonderful memories I have of my son will never be tarnished. They will forever be in my heart and soul. I loved him so much, and somehow I have to live my life knowing that I will never get to see him grow up to the wonderful man I knew that he could be.

Logan was the most beautiful was the most beautiful boy in whose life was tragically had been tragically cut short. The world is a colder and darker place without his smile and happy energy in which he lived his life. The hole that has been left in the hearts of all that of all who knew and loved him will never be filled.

No amount of time can heal the wounds that have been  inflicted. The wonderful memories I have of my son will never be tarnished. They will forever be in my heart and soul. I loved him so much and somehow I have to live my life knowing that I will never get to see him grow up to the wonderful man I knew that he could be.

 It’s difficult to imagine how Logan must have suffered at the hands of those who he trusted. Unimaginable that those who should have loved and protected him betrayed him in the worst possible way. Attempts to cover up the crime in the hours following Logan’s death and the subsequent web of lies and deceit that were to follow an indication of the callousness and lack of remorse shown by those convicted today.

The impact of Logan’s tragic death on so many people cannot be measured. Nothing can bring Logan back. But I hope today’s outcome will bring some comfort to those who loved him.  Craig, for his part, watched the trial by video link rather than sitting in the courtroom. And reporters repeatedly noted that during sessions about his stepbrother’s murder, he calmly ate chocolate bars.

Logan’s grandmother, Claire, also testified. She said she didn’t doubt her daughter’s grief was real. She’d seen her in the hospital in genuine shock. But she also remembered something else. The day after Logan’s body was found, her daughter warned her not to be surprised if she and her partner were arrested.

When Claire asked why, Angharad said they hadn’t done anything wrong, but added that everything had happened while Logan was in in care. She said this hours before her own arrest. A woman who served time  alongside Angharad before sentencing testified about how she behaved in prison, telling other inmates she was the mother of the boy killed in Bridgend, showing them his photo, saying it all without a trace of emotion, like she was reading off a grocery list.

On April 21st, 2022, all three were found guilty of murder. Sentencing came on June 30th. Mrs. Justice Jefford addressed Angharad directly. Her relationship with Logan had changed once John entered the picture, the judge said. In his mother’s eyes, the boy had become something unwanted, a problem child nobody wanted around.

You’d like to think words like that get said in a courtroom every day, that it’s just legal language. But the thought of a 5-year-old becoming unwanted, unneeded inside his own home doesn’t fade, no matter how many cases pass through that room. At the time of his death, Logan weighed just over three stone and stood 3 and 1/2 feet tall.

The judge called what happened to him nothing short of horrifying.  For the very first time, we can also show you new pictures of the pair who dehumanized Logan with their treatment, Angharad Williamson and John Cole. Mrs. Justice Jefford said that by treating him the way they did, they had dehumanized him.

 The judge said that Cole and Craig Mulligan had perpetrated the violent assault on him, but that that couldn’t have happened without the full knowledge and collusion of Angharad Williamson. John Cole will serve a minimum of 29 years, Angharad Williamson will serve 28 years in prison. After all the evidence we’ve heard in this long trial, it was striking to hear the judges comments today summarizing this case.

 She  said the injuries inflicted on Logan were nothing short of horrifying.  Well, let’s return now to Cardiff Crown Court. Hey, Michelle, while the events of the courtroom are making the headlines today, there is still a family and a community in Sarn, Bridgend, grieving for their loss.  Well, yes, firstly, we heard a victim impact statement read on behalf of Ben Mwangi, Logan’s biological father.

 It was a very difficult listen in court this morning. Ben Mwangi says he’s still experiences very vivid nightmares about Logan where he comes to him saying he’s okay, but as the nightmare progresses, he drifts further away and out of his arms, leaving Ben Mwangi waking up screaming and crying.

 In Bridgend, too, there are many people who have been affected by Logan’s death, and for the very first time, we can hear from Rhiannon Hales. She was once the best friend of Angharad Williams, and that her children were friends with Logan. They played together. They went to school together. The trauma of everything that they’ve been through has been too much for her to speak publicly before, but what you’re about to hear is her voice with her personal tribute    to Logan Mwangi.

 Dear Logan, we miss you. Your smile, your bright big eyes, your laughter, and your silliness.  Rhiannon Hales knew Logan Mwangi better than most. Her family and his were intertwined. Classmates, neighbors, friends. She’s never before felt able to talk publicly about the 5-year-old’s tragic death. The pain    all too raw.

Instead, she’s written this tribute addressed directly to Logan.  School mornings haven’t been the same without your  hugs to start the day. Watching you laugh and play with my girls. You have never really  left us. Your photos are all in our home and the love we have keeps you with us.  Rihanna Nails and her children were loyal friends to Logan’s family.

They are victims, too. The lies, the cover-up, and then the awful truth are still sinking in. She and her children have been helped with counseling, but it will take longer than a year to come to terms with all they’ve endured.  Myself, your family, and the community will always keep your memory around and will not let people forget  your little face.

I wish everyone knew how amazing you were and I wish you could have grown into the amazing man I knew you’d become.  The hole you have left in mine and so many others’ lives will be never filled. And it kills me knowing we will never get to see  your face again. Forever in our hearts, gorgeous boy.

 May your star shine brighter than the rest. I love you.  John received a life sentence with a minimum of 29 years. Enhered got 28. Craig, who turned 14 by then, was sentenced to a minimum of 15 years, making him one of the youngest people in British history to receive a life sentence.  Logan’s biological father, Ben Mwangi, was in court today to  see the three murderers handed life sentences.

His ex-partner will serve a minimum of 28 years, Cole a minimum of 29, while Craig Mulligan, Cole’s stepson who had come to live in the house, will serve at least 15 years. Ben was stopped from seeing his son by Williamson and Cole and is now fighting  to change the law. He told ITV that social services should be duty bound to tell biological parents when their children are believed to be at risk.

 If I can stop this from happening to anybody else, then that would be the most positive thing. My lasting memory of him was just that happy little boy that called me Daddy.  Some of the tributes to Logan’s brief life may be fading, but his killers  sentenced today have a lifetime to reflect on their actions and the happy innocent life they so needlessly  ended.

 Later that year, the ex-solicitor general reviewed whether Craig’s sentence had been too lenient and decided not to refer the case to the court of appeal. In 2023, Angharad tried to appeal her own conviction. The appeal was denied. After sentencing, Ben said it felt like every cell in his body had died and that he’d never understand how something like this could happen to his son.

 It is incomprehensible that Logan had his life cut short in such tragic circumstances at the hands of those very people who should have been there to protect  him. For Logan’s father, Ben, who stands for something, today’s sentence is a welcome news. However, no amount of justice can bring Logan back or compensate for the grief that continues  to be felt.

Ben and his family have demonstrated incredible strength throughout. What they’ve been through is hard to comprehend, but they’ve endured everything with tremendous  courage and dignity at this most difficult time. The impact Logan’s death has had and continues to  have on all those who loved him and knew him within the local community is immeasurable.

Knowing that justice has been done for Logan, I hope they can now begin to rebuild their lives and celebrate the joy that he gave them during the precious time they had with him.  He also described a recurring dream, Logan running up to him, hugging him,  telling him he’s okay, and then slowly fading, slipping out of his arms until Ben wakes up screaming.

  At Tondu School, where Logan used to draw and play hide-and-seek,    the school planted a small memorial garden in his memory.  On the notice boards at Tondu Primary School,  there’s a permanent reminder of Logan’s life. A poem sits  alongside his carefree and happy school picture. Some of Logan’s best days  were spent in this playground.

 He was a wonderful little boy, very, very happy all the time, smiling,  chatty, bright. And he was loved by everybody.   What kind of a personality was he like in this playground in your school?  Lovely. He was absolutely delightful. He loved mud and  welly Wednesday. He would play Superman. He liked hiding.

He was really popular. Just a lovely, lovely little boy.   The scars of Logan’s death are still etched on everyone who knew him. To help with the grief, the school has built a memorial garden in his honor.  The children now  can remember Logan, but also if they’ve lost a loved one as well, they can put something in the memorial garden, which they do.

  There’s some something somebody lost someone recently. And if they lose a pet or something like that, it’s a way of them having    something to remember and good memories.  Do you feel that now that the trial’s finished, the verdict’s delivered, the sentence is delivered, that there can be a sense of closure?  That’s what we’re hoping for.

Losing a child  is a devastating thing. Because we get so close to our children. They are part of our family. So,  we’re working through it. We’re supporting each other. We will get through  it, but it will take a long time.  Logan’s death still casts a long shadow on this tight-knit community in Sun.

A little boy beaten to death in his own home by the very people in his life there to protect him.  The school put a bench in the garden, a place kids could sit if they were feeling sad.  Logan isn’t the first child a system was supposed to protect and didn’t. In the UK,  a child dies from abuse roughly once a week on average, and this isn’t just a UK problem.

31 photographs that never left a hospital, a burn that got explained away, social workers who showed up every 10 days and never saw it. Behind every one of those numbers is a child just like him who simply didn’t have the right adult in the right place at the right time. Logan was 5 years old, 4 months, and 15 days old.

This video was made for documentary and educational purposes.  People    will say, and people have said, “Why does God allow these things to happen?” And it’s not  a question I can answer. I just I cannot answer it. Um but I understand  their grief. And I understand the confusion. And all I can  offer is that actually God understands that, too.

 The case of Logan Mwangi was a public criminal trial, and the information in this video comes from public court records and news coverage. Detective Myers covers real criminal cases to help viewers recognize the warning signs of child abuse, understand where protective systems  succeed and where they fail, and know what to watch for around the children in their own lives.

 A bruise that got believed, a burn explained away by a hot tap, 31 photographs that never left a hospital. These aren’t just details from one case. They’re red flags that show up again and again. Knowing what they look like is what  gives someone the chance to stop the next one.