UK - Logan Mwangi, 5, found dead in Wales River, Bridgend, 31 July 2021 *arrests, inc. minor* #3

[Moll]

11:45PHILIP DEWEY
'We were getting really close towards the end and he had started calling me "dad"'
Peter Rouch QC, representing Angharad Williamson, continues his cross-examination of his client's partner and co-accused John Cole. The barrister questions whether Cole and the youth defendant liked Logan Mwangi.

Mr Rouch said: “Were you aware [the youth] had been saying he didn’t like Logan or wanted to kill Logan?”

Cole said: “No… It wasn’t said to me and it wasn’t said to Angharad.”

Mr Rouch said: “Was it clear [the youth] didn’t like Logan?”

Cole said: “That was the first time I heard about it in this case.”

Mr Rouch said: “In a conversation with Rhiannon Hales you said you would always love Angharad even without loving Logan.”

Cole said: “We were struggling at that time… We had a conversation and I said I was struggling with Logan.”

Mr Rouch said: “Did you say that [...without loving Logan]?”

Cole said: “I can’t remember the words and I said I was struggling.”

Mr Rouch said: “What about Daniel O’Brien?”

Cole said: “I don’t remember the exact wording… I might have said I didn’t like his behaviour but I didn’t say if I liked him. I taught Logan a lot of stuff, me and Logan were actually very close… We were getting really close towards the end and he had started calling me 'dad'.”

The defendant was asked about Logan’s isolation after he tested positive for Covid.

Cole said: “We both kept him in [his room] because we were scared of contracting Covid. When we went in to give him food he was asked to look away from us.”

Mr Rouch said: “Would he try and get some attention?”

Cole said: “That’s why we gave him the laptop and different toys to occupy him.”

Mr Rouch said: “Would he try to talk to his mother?”

Cole said: “He tried to talk to all of us.”

Mr Rouch said: “Did you say to her not to give in?”

Cole said: “No.”

Mr Rouch said: “Did you say he was giving you dirty looks?”

Cole said: “He was scowling at us. He was angry because he couldn’t run around the house.”

He added: “When he was hurting himself she would beg with him and cry. She worked really hard to stop him hurting himself. We both did….Logan would always want attention.”

Mr Rouch said: “You said: ‘He kind of just sits there snarling at you’. What does that mean? ‘Kind of dagger looks’.”

Cole said: “This was when he was pinching himself…. He would give you dagger looks when he was being punished…. We wouldn’t let him come out of his bedroom because he had Covid.”

Mr Rouch said: “You said on the Friday he was giving you dagger looks and snarling.”

Cole said: “He wasn’t happy with me or Angharad because he had to self-isolate.”

The barrister takes Cole through his police interviews about the Friday before Logan’s death. He refers to a passage where Cole told police he had thrown Logan on the bed and he and Williamson had to put him back in bed 10 or 12 times.

Throughout this passage Cole was describing Logan as “snarling” and “growling”.

Mr Rouch said: “Those are normally words you would use for a dog.” Cole said: “I wasn’t calling him a dog.”

Mr Rouch said: “How tall are you?” Cole said: “Six foot four.”

Mr Rouch said: “What weight were you?” Cole said: “I didn’ throw him forcefully on the bed….. [I was] 14 or 15 stone.”
Logan Mwangi 'made to do press-ups and sit-ups', says stepdad

 

[mrazda71]

Had her area changed to UC or was it still on old style benefits? £1500 a month seems a lot and it would seem IMO to be why they kept two residences on the go.

That figure sounds a lot if you assume that the amount she could just spend but, it would include housing benefit and council tax benefit so the amount she had 'to live on' in the bank is less than that amount.

 

[Dotta]

We had moved to universal credit, but she was likely claiming the highest amount due to her numerous disabilities; seizures, wheelchair user, hearing aids, MS…….

Hmmm
And yet the doctors said she was OK physically.

 

[Stumpyaura]

Just so sad hearing how a 5 year old child was made to isolate in a room by himself, not allowed to talk to them and forced to look away. This really shows the lack of any paternal/maternal feelings by this point. No matter how worried about Covid someone is, putting a small child through this is so cruel.

 

[LucyRocket]

I agree. All because they’re worried about their own health (apparently). Should have sent him to grandma’s, I’m sure she would have been delighted to take care of him and wouldn’t give a hoot about catching covid herself. Selfish, bullying, abusive *advertiser censored**holes.

MOO

 

[mrazda71]

Just so sad hearing how a 5 year old child was made to isolate in a room by himself, not allowed to talk to them and forced to look away. This really shows the lack of any paternal/maternal feelings by this point. No matter how worried about Covid someone is, putting a small child through this is so cruel.

I agree, I do absolutely (especially in the earlier days of the pandemic) understand the fear of getting covid but, if my child had tested positive, I wouldn't, just couldn't have made them stay in their room isolating.

The idea of trying to do that with a child as young as Logan was is just unfathomable.

 

[RusselSprout]

yes, i really wonder what other parents would do in the situation there child has covid? im not a parent myself, but its seems really awful they made him isolate to such extreme. My friends child had covid and she bunked up with the child, and they both isolated from the dad, I think thats a much more humane way to deal with a child with covid.

 

[Tortoise]

I don't believe he was isolated in his room. I believe he was confined to his bed for the last day of his life because he was too seriously injured to be doing anything else.

He was sitting on the stairs at JC's house colouring-in on the night of the 27th.

 

[Moll]

12:03PHILIP DEWEY
'I gave him a clip earlier on in the day… I’m not proud of what I did but I admit what I’ve done'
Barrister Peter Rouch QC then asked John Cole about Logan’s missing bed sheet.

Cole said: “I know when he went to bed he didn’t have a sheet on his bed.”

Mr Rouch said: “That night when he went to bed his bed was made and, if his sheet was moved, you moved it.”

Cole said: “Angharad cleaned his room, washed his sheet, and made the bed so the room was decontaminated…. His bed was made but there was no bottom sheet on his bed.”

Mr Rouch added: “He didn’t eat much that night?” The defendant agreed.

Mr Rouch said: “He had a bath and fell in the bath. Is that when you hit him in the head?”

Cole said: “No, I gave him a clip earlier on in the day… I’m not proud of what I did but I admit what I’ve done.”

Mr Rouch said: “You’re six foot four, 14 or 15 stone, and Logan is a little five-year-old.”

The trial adjourns for a short break.
Logan Mwangi 'made to do press-ups and sit-ups', says stepdad

 

[DC50]

The way he talks about Logan smh. A teenager or adult can give "daggers" or dirty looks. I can't ever see a situation I'd describe an under 5 as doing that.

 

[LucyRocket]

I don’t think JC went to work at all. With his testimony that AW would ring him whenever he left the house asking how long he would be and being very dependent, I don’t think going to work would have been an option. Also he’s given testimony about several incidents and time periods within the home now, at some point there would have been reference to having been at work. I think most likely his ‘carer’ or ‘care worker’ status was in reference to the youth being placed with him, as in a foster placement.

MOO

 

[neteditor]

yes, i really wonder what other parents would do in the situation there child has covid? im not a parent myself, but its seems really awful they made him isolate to such extreme. My friends child had covid and she bunked up with the child, and they both isolated from the dad, I think thats a much more humane way to deal with a child with covid.

I have two daughters, 14 and 17, and I would never force them to stay in their room, covid or otherwise, at this or any age. That poor little boy must have felt so abandoned.

 

[Moll]

I don't believe he was isolated in his room. I believe he was confined to his bed for the last day of his life because he was too seriously injured to be doing anything else.

He was sitting on the stairs at JC's house colouring-in on the night of the 27th.

Yes.
We have to remind ourselves of the list of Logan's injuries when he died, when the defendants somehow manage to draw us into the minutiae of their lesser ill-treatment of him and their lying explanations.

 

[neteditor]

The way he talks about Logan smh. A teenager or adult can give "daggers" or dirty looks. I can't ever see a situation I'd describe an under 5 as doing that.

Oh they absolutely can! Facial expression is one of the first forms of communication, and it's instinctive.

 

[LucyRocket]

The way he talks about Logan smh. A teenager or adult can give "daggers" or dirty looks. I can't ever see a situation I'd describe an under 5 as doing that.

I actually can, and it’s heartbreaking. The frustration of being treated so abusively and having no defence, I can imagine the hatred towards them, even within a child so young, glaring at them, it’s all he could do. The pinching himself is in the same context I think. He’s so frustrated at being abused that he’s self-harming. MOO

 

[neteditor]

Yes.
We have to remind ourselves of the list of Logan's injuries when he died, when the defendants somehow manage to draw us into the minutiae of their lesser ill-treatment of him and their lying explanations.

Is JC trying to say that Logan injured himself to that extent, pinching and hitting himself?

 

[LucyRocket]

I have two daughters, 14 and 17, and I would never force them to stay in their room, covid or otherwise, at this or any age. That poor little boy must have felt so abandoned.

Absolutely! My son was 20 when he had Covid at Christmas, and Christmas morning he rang me from his bedroom upstairs to ask me to let him know when I was upstairs so that he could come down and open his presents. No chance! We sat together.

 

[Tortoise]

Is JC trying to say that Logan injured himself to that extent, pinching and hitting himself?

There's been all kinds of allegations, Logan was falling off cabinets, leaping over the baby gate, throwing himself around in the bath tub, throwing his plastic dinosaur at the wall and it bouncing back in his face ...

It's very much like Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, where ET said he was throwing himself at the doors and walls and floor, that poor little beaten up skeletal boy who was given nothing to eat but salt-laden sandwiches, and had no energy.

 

[Alicethroughtheglass]

Absolutely! My son was 20 when he had Covid at Christmas, and Christmas morning he rang me from his bedroom upstairs to ask me to let him know when I was upstairs so that he could come down and open his presents. No chance! We sat together.

Yep my daughter was 12 and I had just found out I was pregnant, I was hugging her and comforting her and helping to feel better. No way I could have made her turn away from me.

 

[Moll]

Sorry!!
I missed the Wales online post a minute before the last one:


12:02PHILIP DEWEY
'I did not hit Logan in his stomach,' says Cole

Barrister Peter Rouch QC, cross-examining John Cole on behalf of his client Angharad Williamson, refers to an alleged incident on July 29 last year when Williamson claimed Cole punched Logan twice in the stomach and the youth swept the little boy's feet. This was the incident where Williamson was seen leaving 5 Lower Llansantffraid while being pursued by the youth defendant.

Cole said: “She had found a booger on a stereo and something to do with food. I dismissed it and she wasn’t happy with me because I didn’t take it seriously.”

Mr Rouch said: “Did you say Logan was giving you dirty looks? Was there a row about your attitude to Logan?”

Cole said: “No there was a row when Angharad grabbed him by the arms and shook him."

Mr Rouch said: “She said you were always picking on Logan.”

Cole said: “No, there was an incident where she shook Logan and we argued about that.”

Mr Rouch said: “You said he was the source of your arguments and he was desperate to come out of his room. You said: ‘You think it’s funny we’re arguing over you, you won’t be happy until you split us up’… You went to his room and put him in the hallway…. And Logan began to flinch in your presence.”

Cole said : “No.”

Mr Rouch said: “You have a loud and aggressive voice.”

Cole said: “We both shouted at Logan… I wasn’t aggressive to Logan.”

Mr Rouch said: “When you had him in the hallway did you say: ‘'Why are you flinching?'?…. Did you say: 'We’ve got to stop him flinching while I’m around him'?”

Cole said: “No.”

Mr Rouch said: “You were there in the hallway towering above him and said: ‘The only thing this boy understands is pain’.

Cole said: “No.”

Mr Rouch said: “You hit him twice to the stomach.”

Cole said: “I did not hit Logan in his stomach.”

Mr Rouch said: “He fell on his backside and the youth was in the hallway and you said to the youth: ‘If he flinches again take him down’.

Cole said: “No.”

Mr Rouch said: “Logan started to speak, he was stammering and spluttering and [the youth] took him down, swept him with his left leg and when he fell to the floor pressed his head into the ground.”

Cole said: “[The youth] didn’t touch Logan, I didn’t touch Logan.”

Mr Rouch said: “After you assaulted and punched Logan and after [the youth] swept him Angharad grabbed him and put him in his bedroom.”

Cole said: “No. Angharad shook Logan and she went outside. I didn’t hit Logan and [the youth] didn’t sweep Logan.”

Mr Rouch said: “Did she say: ‘I’m sick of these lies and I’m going to leave you’ and you said you’ll kill him, meaning Logan?”

Cole said: “No, she ran out of the house when I told her to get her hands off Logan when she shook him.”

Mr Rouch said: “Was she hysterical and distressed?”

Cole said: “She was upset… I shouted at her when she shook Logan.”

Mr Rouch said: “It wasn’t because of what you had done, you and the youth?”

Cole said: “No.”

The barrister said the youth went after Williamson and she came back. Cole agreed.
Logan Mwangi 'made to do press-ups and sit-ups', says stepdad