UK - Logan Mwangi, 5, found dead in Wales River, Bridgend, 31 July 2021 *arrests, inc. minor* #2

[wowiezowie]

From the evidence of the inmate it looks like they are making a documentary about the case. I suspect it will be the Ch 4 series '24 Hours in Police Custody' I guess it will be shown after sentencing. It'll be interesting to watch because they always show the actual police interviews with the accused.

 

[LucyRocket]

Some additional, minor details here which I hadn't previously read

Video of moment boy, 5, was found dead in river played to jury

 

[LucyRocket]

From the evidence of the inmate it looks like they are making a documentary about the case. I suspect it will be the Ch 4 series '24 Hours in Police Custody' I guess it will be shown after sentencing. It'll be interesting to watch because they always show the actual police interviews with the accused.

I wouldn't bank on it. She might like to think so, but they quite likely could have been a news crew covering another story on that day. There's always camera crews at crown court every day

 

[Sooty]

Ms Brooks said: “She said she got the autopsy results and she had been told Logan had been put alive in the river in bin bags because he had water in his lungs so he was still alive when he was thrown into the water.”

Ms Brooks said: “She said she woke up the next morning and found Logan had walked out, fallen in the river and drowned”

She said ‘Have you heard of the Bridgend baby, the boy who was murdered and thrown in the river, I was his mother’...

Ms Short said: “Yes, it was about the accommodation when she brought it up. I asked if she could return to the address and she said it was crim scene and her son was murdered there and doesn’t want to live there anymore. She said ‘Do you know who I am’, I said I didn’t and she said ‘Five year old boy river’.”

so many different accounts given by AW

 

[Tortoise]

"Ms Brooks said when Williamson knew a prison officer was due to come and see her "wailing would begin and it would stop as abruptly as it had started when the prison officer walked away".

Logan Mwangi: Mother accused of murdering her five-year-old son 'never shed a real tear'

I wonder if she stops her wailing in court now.

 

[Kitkat28]

I know it’s not for us armchair detectives to give psychological diagnoses but she sure seems to show at least some traits of a histrionic personality- the shifting of emotions, overly dramatic, attention seeking etc.

Or that’s what she’d like people to think. It’s seems to me that there’s at least some element of setting herself up an “insanity” defence of some sort.
JMO, but everything she does seems fake. The seizures, the “personality disorder”, changing her stories repeatedly, the attention seeking. While all these can obviously be signs of mental illness in people who are actually ill, I can’t help thinking in AW’s case they are carefully calculated to look that way.

 

[HongKongPhooey]

"Ms Brooks said when Williamson knew a prison officer was due to come and see her "wailing would begin and it would stop as abruptly as it had started when the prison officer walked away".

Logan Mwangi: Mother accused of murdering her five-year-old son 'never shed a real tear'

I wonder if she stops her wailing in court now.

She will try switching it on and off no doubt.

IMO. This woman is an evil manipulative w*tch, no one should buy her histrionics. The testimony is showing her up for what she is, she makes me sick to my stomach

 

[katydid23]

The multiple defence barristers make this unusually interesting. Their aim is not so much to clear their respective clients, but to pin the blame on one or both of the other defendants.

Exactly. And that's just fine with me. Let them stand in a circle pointing At each other. At this point, they are all responsible for this sweet child's death. JMO

 

[katydid23]

I am actually not feeling as hard on AW. She failed her son in every way, absolutely no doubt there, but I don't think her crying in court is necessarily wholly a performance.

Recently, she changed, and Logan changed. Initially she had a very close relationship with her mother and was visiting with Logan's father and Logan looked healthy. Then she tells Logan's father they can't visit anymore because JC doesn't think it's right, and can no longer have a relationship with her mother because JC doesn't like her, and Logan's appearance begins to change, losing weight and looking pale with dark eyes.

I think she was in a situation which was deteriorating so subtly she didn't recognise how bad it was, and she has a personality which is intense, dramatic, and reliant on a relationship with her current man (whomever that is at the time). I think her home-life 'normal' became what we know it to be, without her even recognising how wrong it was. Kind of like, the cobwebs and dust build up in my utility room and I think hmm I should deal with them, but I don't, and after a while I stop noticing them altogether. They just are. My sister will come round and say "Lucy, what the hey!! Look at this mess!" Like I would if I walked into her house and saw the same. But to me they've become an unnoticed part of the environment. I know that's a crude correlation to make, but it's how I imagine it.

So I think maybe her reaction in court is that of most humans. She'd possibly become blind to the severity and the frequency of the maltreatment of Logan because it had escalated subtly so the boundaries of what was normal punishment or rough play were only ever being marginally pushed further. But now, the details of how severe his injuries and how horrific his pain and suffering, is being told to her and illustrated in fact.

All MOO

ETA: Her being overheard shouting "What have you done with my son? Where's my son?" Leads me to think she wasn't fully involved. However, her shouting "You told me he was alive" makes it clear she knew his condition was critical.

I cannot give her as much benefit of the doubt as some can. Sorry, but she gets no sympathy from me. To say that a mother could become blind to her little boy's violent maltreatment is just too hard to forgive. That is never something that a parent should overlook or ignore. In this case, it hastened his painful death.

 

[DH771]

I cannot give her as much benefit of the doubt as some can. Sorry, but she gets no sympathy from me. To say that a mother could become blind to her little boy's violent maltreatment is just too hard to forgive. That is never something that a parent should overlook or ignore. In this case, it hastened his painful death.

I agree with this… that beautiful boy looked to his mum for all his basic needs- safety, warmth, food.

Recently a much older child pushed/threw my son out of the way at a an outdoor adventure park and instinctively you just run over and stamp it out- I think most mothers would have that within them seeing their child come to harm.

I don’t know how she can live with herself and her conscious as I certainly couldn’t and I know full well my family wouldn’t stand by me or support me if I were in her shoes. They would be utterly disgusted and only be going to court to make sure I get what I deserve.

 

[VioletLilac]

What she said about JC hitting Logan very hard and him crying and her comforting him and giving him calpol is so upsetting. When you read about the severe injuries they are so extreme that it's hard to imagine, but when you read her description of Logan reacting to being assaulted, it really hits home.

If only she'd protected him as soon as the abuse started. She even had her own home. It's not as if she had nowhere to go even. She said she wasn't scared of him.

Her saying he never laid a finger on her makes it sound like hitting her son was OK, as long as she wasn't hit!

 

[SpursGyal]

Logan Mwangi murder trial - live updates

Link for live updates. Court due to begin at 10am today. I’ll try bring over the updates again.

 

[neteditor]

Or that’s what she’d like people to think. It’s seems to me that there’s at least some element of setting herself up an “insanity” defence of some sort.
JMO, but everything she does seems fake. The seizures, the “personality disorder”, changing her stories repeatedly, the attention seeking. While all these can obviously be signs of mental illness in people who are actually ill, I can’t help thinking in AW’s case they are carefully calculated to look that way.

Perhaps she's working it to best effect now, but this isn't new behaviour, IMO, as per the evidence of Logan's teachers. I think others also described this convulsive reaction to stress previously, too?

 

[RusselSprout]

From the evidence of the inmate it looks like they are making a documentary about the case. I suspect it will be the Ch 4 series '24 Hours in Police Custody' I guess it will be shown after sentencing. It'll be interesting to watch because they always show the actual police interviews with the accused.

I really love that show, I hope you are right

 

[VioletLilac]

There was an episode of "Faking it: Tears of a Crime" on recently where they looked at the body language of the parents of Ellie Butler. They used police interview footage for that though, rather than filming it, so probably won't be that. I grew up in the area and had once visited the estate where they lived. So it felt close to home. Another case where the child had been injured prior to the murder (broken shoulder) but they hadn't sought medical attention.

 

[LucyRocket]

I cannot give her as much benefit of the doubt as some can. Sorry, but she gets no sympathy from me. To say that a mother could become blind to her little boy's violent maltreatment is just too hard to forgive. That is never something that a parent should overlook or ignore. In this case, it hastened his painful death.

I agree. I never felt any sympathy for her at all. More so trying to understand how this situation could develop when it seems she wasn't always that way. It's in my nature and training to do that, otherwise I wouldn't be any good at my job and I would be missing an opportunity to learn something which might help me to better help other children in the future. However, my assessment has shifted somewhat after reading some of yesterday's testimonies. Once she was removed from the situation and had every opportunity to recognise the tragedy, she only seemed to be enjoying the attention she would gain, above any feelings of sickness or remorse at how her baby has suffered. That doesn't fit in with anything I might have given her credit for AT ALL.

 

[DC50]

I've been on a safeguarding course this morning and all I could think about was dear Logan and all the missed opportunities to save him

 

[Mammaalli]

Phone Call- AW was still lying to her Mother then. You can't be turning lights on and off in your sons bedroom from your bed now can you !!

 

[SpursGyal]

Phone call
The trial resumes.

Junior barrister Claire Pickthall takes the jury through a transcript of a telephone call Angharad Williamson made to her mother Claire Williamson on November 14, 2021, at 8.21pm.

Here’s the transcript:

Angharad Williamson: “I need to talk to you. Seriously my head is going round and round. I’ve tried everything to distract myself today but I can’t get it out of my head.”

Clare Williamson: “What do you need to talk to me about?”

Angharad Williamson: “How is it (Cole) can plead guilty to perverting the course of justice and the details of what he did, how can he plead not guilty to murder?”

Clare Williamson: “I don’t know.”

Angharad Williamson: “What the *advertiser censored** happened? I need to know.”

Clare Williamson: “Darling….”

Angharad Williamson: “What’s he been doing? He’s attempting to hide stuff, hiding stuff in the washing machine. I want to know what he put in the washing machine. What’s he done to my son? I need to know, it’s driving me crazy mum.”

Clare Williamson: “Remember I said to you the washing machine was moving at the beginning.”

Angharad Williamson: “No, yeah, (Logan) needs a sheet on because he wets the bed. We wouldn’t have left it without bedding and without the sheet on. When I went there in the morning there’s no bedding or sheet there.”

Logan Mwangi murder trial - live updates

 

[SpursGyal]

Logan Mwangi murder trial - live updates

Prison officer's statement about Cole
The first statement to be read is from Sarah Jones, a prison officer from HMP Cardiff.

At 9.15am on September 1, 2021, Ms Jones was involved in taking John Cole to a hearing from prison when he made a number of comments to her after her colleague had left the room.

She said: “He turned to me and said ‘I don’t know why they think I could have murdered Logan….”

Later that day, Cole made another comment. He said: “The thing is I didn’t kill Logan, I heard (the youth) reciting a rap song saying ‘I like kids, I like kids, I want to punch and kick them’.”

Cole also told Ms Jones: “I’ve got a moral dilemma, do I go down for murder or protect (the youth).”