Teenager and step-parents sentenced over Logan Mwangi’s murder

Craig Mulligan, 14, John Cole, 40, and Angharad Williamson, 31, received life sentences after being convicted of the five-year-old boy’s murder.
Craig Mulligan, 14, has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 15 years (South Wales Police/PA)
Bronwen Weatherby30 June 2022

A teenager who took part in the ferocious murder with his step-parents of his five-year-old stepbrother has been named for the first time as he was detained for life for murder.

Craig Mulligan, 14, was sentenced to a minimum of 15 years’ detention for killing Logan Mwangi having previously expressed a desire to kill him.

Mulligan carried out the fatal assault on Logan with his stepfather John Cole, 40, in the flat where they lived in Lower Llansantffraid, Sarn, while his stepmother and the youngster’s biological mother Angharad Williamson, 31, stood by and “did nothing”.

Cole was told by a judge at Cardiff Crown Court that he would spend at least 29 years behind bars while Williamson would serve a minimum of 28 years’ custody.

Logan Mwangi (South Wales Police/PA)
PA Media

A social services investigation is now under way into the circumstances of Logan’s death as Mulligan had only returned to the care of Cole just five days before the murder.

The trio were convicted of killing the little boy in Sarn, Bridgend, South Wales, in April, following a trial at Cardiff Crown Court.

Passing sentence, Mrs Justice Jefford said: “You are responsible for Logan’s death and all the anguish that has followed from it.

“Because he was killed in his own home and by his own family, it is not possible to be sure exactly what happened to him but what is very clear is that shortly before his death, this little boy – three feet and five inches in height and weighing only three stone and one pound – was subjected to a brutal attack.”

The judge described the injuries Logan had suffered and said they were the “sort of injuries seen in abused children”.

Angharad Williamson, 31, who has been jailed at Cardiff Crown Court for life with a minimum term of 28 years for the murder of her five-year-old son Logan Mwangi (South Wales Police/PA)
PA Media

“The inflicting of these injuries on a small, defenceless five-year-old is nothing short of horrifying.”

The judge said Williamson had tried to shift the blame onto others and added: “You had the opportunity to protect your son from further injury and you did nothing.

“What happened to Logan must have involved appalling mental and physical suffering.

“It is impossible to imagine the terror and anguish of a five-year-old child as these horrific injuries were inflicted on him by those he regarded as family and with the complicity of his mother.

“In a final act of callousness, all three of you agreed to try to cover up Logan’s death as an accident.

“It is impossible not to draw the inference that you regarded disposing of Logan’s body as akin to disposing of rubbish.”

John Cole, 40, who has been jailed at Cardiff Crown Court for life with a minimum term of 29 years (South Wales Police/PA)
PA Media

Both Williamson and Mulligan were convicted of a further charge of perverting the course of justice – an offence Cole had admitted before trial.

Logan, a previously “smiling, cheerful little boy”, was discovered in the River Ogmore in Pandy Park on the morning of July 31 2021.

Police found him partially submerged, wearing dinosaur pyjama bottoms and a Spider-Man top just 250 metres from his home.

The youngster had suffered 56 external cuts and bruises, and “catastrophic” internal injuries, which were likened to a high-speed road accident.

In the months and weeks leading up to his death, Logan had been “dehumanised” by his family, prosecutors said.

BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE Undated handout photo issued by South Wales Police of, 5 Lower Llansantffraid, in Sarn, Bridgend (circled left) and the area where his body was discovered (circle right) (South Wales Police/PA)
PA Media

Logan’s stammer is said to have worsened, becoming particularly bad around Cole.

He wet himself more frequently and began self-harming.

Friends of the couple said Cole told them he did not like Logan, and others said his attitude changed after becoming obsessed with the idea that Williamson had cheated with Logan’s father Ben Mwangi.

After Williamson gave birth to his own child, Cole was reluctant to let Logan see the baby and later claimed the boy had tried to smother the infant.

Medics made a safeguarding referral to the police after Logan suffered a broken arm in August 2020.

By March, due to concerns over Cole’s behaviour, Logan and his younger sibling had been assigned their own social worker.

In June, a month before Logan died, the family were removed from the child protection register, meaning it was believed there was no longer a risk of significant harm.

Police tape at a property in the Sarn area of Bridgend, south Wales, near to where five-year-old Logan Mwangi was found dead in the Ogmore River on Saturday (Ben Birchall/PA)
PA Archive

A foster family whom Mulligan stayed with claimed to have heard him say he wanted to kill Logan.

A support worker also heard Mulligan singing: “I love kids, I f****** love kids, I love to punch kids in the head, it’s orgasmic.”

On July 20, Logan tested positive for Covid-19 and he was shut in his bedroom with a baby gate barring him from leaving.

Caroline Rees QC, prosecuting, said: “He had been kept like a prisoner in his small bedroom in the flat you saw, a room likened by Williamson as a dungeon.”

A child practice review into Logan’s death has been launched by the Cwm Taf Morgannwg Safeguarding Board.

Mark Shephard, chief executive of Bridgend County Borough Council, said: “We are awaiting the review’s findings, and together with our partners we will implement any recommendations that it may contain to ensure that we can provide the best, most effective services possible for the local community.”

Tracey Holdsworth, from NSPCC Cymru, said: “It is vital that the child safeguarding practice review leaves no stone unturned in establishing exactly what took place before Logan died and whether more could have been done to protect him by the agencies involved with his family.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in