'I didn’t realise how strict he was and how scared Logan was'
Defendant Angharad Williamson, who is being questioned by her barrister Peter Rouch QC, is asked about how Logan was punished for any misbehaviour.
Williamson said: “John [Cole] became quite strict with Logan.”
Mr Rouch said: “Did you have a way of punishing Logan if he was naughty?”
Williamson said: “It’s been spoken about a lot but it was literally just the naughty corner.”
Mr Rouch said: “Where did you learn about it?”
Williamson said: “It’s Nanny 911 and Jo Frost. It’s about positive parenting and giving children time out, a minute for every year of his age.
“Logan used to go in the hallway and would stand in the corner for five minutes to calm down. I said: ‘Logan, stand there for five minutes. Take a breath’…. After the five minutes he would tell me what he had done wrong, tell me the lie, we’d have a hug and get on with the rest of the day. John didn’t like me giving me a hug and said it was rewarding bad behaviour.”
Williamson said Logan once hit her in the face while she was trying to put a pyjama top on
She said: “All kids can be rambunctious and [Cole] said ‘Don’t you break those toys, we paid good money for them’.... I told him to let him be. He mentioned dirty looks. He said: ‘[Logan’s] giving me a dirty look’, saying he snarled."
The defendant said she put a baby monitor in Logan’s room to see if he was giving dirty looks.
She said: “I felt like [Cole] was picking on him and he said: ‘No, when your back is turned you don’t see the real Logan, we need to get him in line’.”
Williamson was asked about Cole putting Logan in the naughty corner.
She said: “When I put [Logan] in the corner he’d behave quite well…. If Jay put him in the corner he was quite nervous… He’d flinch sometimes….. Jay would say: ‘Why are you flinching Logan?”
“A lot of it is looking back and asking: ‘Why did he do that?’. I thought Jay was trying to help the family, get structure in…. I feel so bad, I thought he was helping parenting. I didn’t realise how strict he was and how scared Logan was.”
The defendant said Cole would restart Logan’s five minutes in the corner again if he pinched himself or apparently gave a dirty look. Mr Rouch said: “Some children try to make excuses to come out?”
Williamson said: “Yes, he said he would need a wee…. You never know with five-year-olds…. [Cole] said: ‘You can stand there, it’s five minutes’.
She said the time in the naughty corner could vary between 15 minutes and 30 minutes.
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