Logan Mwangi: Eight key moments from murder trial after five-year-old’s body found dumped in river
Jury retires to consider verdict as mother, step-father and 14-year-old boy accused of murder
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A jury in the murder trial of a five-year-old boy found dead in a river in Bridgend has retired to consider its verdict.
Logan Mwangi, also known as Logan Williamson, was discovered in the River Ogmore in Pandy Park, Bridgend, on the morning of 31 July 2021, a few hundred metres from the flat he shared with his family.
He had suffered catastrophic injuries likened to those found on victims of high-speed crashes or a fall from a height.
CCTV footage shown to a jury at Cardiff Crown Court captured Logan’s stepfather John Cole, 40, carrying the boy’s lifeless body out of a flat in Lower Llansantffraid and towards the river just hours before his body was found.
A 14-year-old, who cannot legally be identified, can be seen following closely behind.
The pair are both on trial accused of murdering Logan between 28 July and 1 August alongside his mother Angharad Williamson, 30.
All three are also accused of perverting the course of justice.
Ms Williamson and the youth pleaded not guilty to both offences, while Cole denies murder but has admitted perverting the course of justice.
Here is a look back at some of the key moments from murder trial:
Stepfather ‘used sports bag to dump five-year-old boy’s body in river’
Logan’s stepfather told Cardiff Crown Court he and the child’s mother agreed a plan to dispose of his body together.
Giving evidence, Cole said he had awoken at around 2am to Ms Williamson shouting “Logan’s dead, Logan’s dead”.
He said he gave Logan CPR for 10 to 15 minutes before Ms Williamson begged him to stop.
Cole claimed he and MsWilliamson decided to bundle Logan into a Nike sports bag and get him out of the property rather than call police or an ambulance.
Ms Williamson denies knowledge of the plan to dump her son’s body, and says the first time she was aware he was missing was when she awoke at 5am.
Teenager ‘threw boy down stairs’
The court was told the 14-year-old defendant confessed to throwing Logan down a flight of stairs and breaking his arm less than a year before the youngster was found dead in a river.
A recording of a call made by Logan’s mother to the police non-emergency 101 in January 2021 was played to the jury.
During the call, Ms Williamson can be heard telling the call handler about an incident that happened in August 2020 when Logan had fallen down the stairs and broken his arm.
Ms Williamson claimed the teenage defendant had only recently admitted that it was he who had pushed Logan.
She said: “We all thought he’d fallen down the stairs but it turns out, (the teenager) confessed last night that he pushed him down the stairs.”
Boy found in river ‘made to face wall for 30 minutes as punishment’
A friend of Logan’s step-father told the court the five-year-old was forced to stand facing a wall “for 30 minutes at a time” as a punishment.
Callum Williams, who claimed he witnessed the young boy being disciplined several times, said: “They would try and talk to him to figure out what was going on, and if that didn’t work they would make him stand on the landing facing the wall, with his hands on the bannister, for 30 minutes each time.”
On another occasion, Mr Williams said he visited to have a takeaway with the couple and they deprived Logan of any, saying he misbehaved, allowing him only a bowl of cereal that night.
The court also heard from witnesses, including social workers, who said they had noticed Ms Williamson and Cole were “strict” parents.
Youth accused of murder ‘spoke of killing people’
The trial was told the teenage boy jointly accused of Logan’s murder had a “desire for violence” and spoke of killing people.
In statements read to the court, the former foster family of the youth defendant described how he had made their lives “hell” during the several weeks he lived with them last summer.
They also said he had told them on several occasions that he wanted to kill Logan.
He also allegedly told members of the family he wanted to kill them, explaining he would do so if The Purge, a film about a fictional holiday in the US when all crime, including murder, becomes decriminalised, became real.
Five-year-old dumped in river ‘like fly-tipped rubbish’ with 56 injuries
Logan’s body was dumped in a river “like fly-tipped rubbish” with 56 injuries after his death, the court heard.
The youngster suffered 56 “catastrophic” to his head, face, torso, arms and legs before his death last summer, the jury was told.
Prosecutor Caroline Rees QC said it was the prosecution’s case that Logan had been submitted to a “brutal and sustained assault” by John Cole and the then 13-year-old boy on 30 July while he was “hidden from view, behind closed doors” in the family home in Lower Llansantffraid.
She told the court evidence from his mother’s mobile phone showed she was awake in the early hours of the morning “fully aware Logan had died and that his body had been dumped in the river by her partner – disposed of like they were fly-tipping rubbish”.
Mother ‘found washing bloodied bedding’
Logan’s mother was allegedly discovered washing his bloodied bedding when police turned up to look for him.
Ms Williamson was found “wailing and shouting” when officers visited the family’s flat on the morning his body was recovered from the river.
Prosecutor Caroline Rees QC said the sound of a tumble dryer and washing machine could be heard in bodycam footage from when police attended the address, adding: “Why on earth would the family be doing the laundry as a matter of such urgency in the circumstances.
“The prosecution suggest that this was to dispose of incriminating evidence and that one of the items laundered was part of Logan’s bedlinen.”
The sheet, which was missing from Logan’s bed, was recovered from the tumble dryer four days later when the property was searched on 4 August.
Logan’s Paw Patrol duvet and pillow were found to have small amounts of Logan’s blood on them consistent, the prosecution said, with him having been bleeding in bed.
Mother ‘said she would miss punishing him’
Jodie Simmonds, a friend of Cole and Ms Williamson, claimed Cole bullied Logan and that his mother did nothing to intervene.
She said she broke off contact with the couple after seeing Cole try to strangle Ms Williamson during a row, but got in touch after she heard about Logan’s death.
Ms Simmonds and her then-partner Daniel O’Brien visited the couple at Cole’s flat on 31 July.
Both Ms Simmonds and Mr O’Brien recalled Ms Williamson saying she would “miss punishing Logan, miss putting him in the naughty corner, miss him being naughty”.
Boy ‘sang about punching kids in the head’
Two weeks after Logan’s death, the teenager jointly accused of his murder was allegedly heard by a care worker singing: “I love kids. I f****** love kids. I love to punch kids in the head. It’s orgasmic.”
He later allegedly told another care worker: “I did some bad stuff but I am not allowed to talk about it.”
The trial continues.