Systemic failings lead to death of Logan Mwangi

A review into the murder of five-year-old Logan Mwangi says key findings which lead to his death may be systemic, and not isolated instances of individual error or poor practice.

Today's Child Practice Review from Cwm Taf Morgannwg Safeguarding Board looks into the involvement of a number of agencies including South Wales Police, the health board, Bridgend Children’s Services and the probation Service.

It said professionals’ lacked confidence in challenging the family’s potential use of Covid anxieties and symptoms as a barrier to engage with various services.

The report stated that Logan Mwangi's voice 'was not heard' and there was no knowledge of the reality of his lived experience.

It also highlighted how injuries observed on Logan weren't shared with services that could have taken appropriate action to safeguard him.

Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board is also criticised for a culture where health staff are reluctant to challenge the clinical assessments and decisions made by more qualified professionals.

Mother and step-father jailed for Logan's murder

In April this year, jurors found Logan's mother 31-year-old Angharad Williamson guilty of murder and perverting the course of justice.

Logan's step-dad 40-year-old John Cole was found guilty of murder, he had already admitted perverting the course of justice.

A 14-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons was also found guilty of murder and perverting the course of justice.

Here are highlights from today's report

"The Review Panel believes that these issues may be systemic, and not isolated instances of individual error or poor practice."

COVID: Professionals’ lack of confidence in challenging the family’s potential use of Covid 19 anxieties and Covid 19 symptoms as a barrier to engagement with services. This highlights how Covid 19 was a further barrier to identifying potential disguised compliance, i.e. the family appearing to co-operate with professionals in order to allay any concerns and stop professional engagement.

HEALTH: Practitioners identified several significant injuries to Child T (Logan) over the course of his hospital attendance which commenced on 16th August 2020. Only initial concerns in respect of a delay in attending hospital were shared in relation to Child T allegedly falling down the stairs, with further injuries being observed later and not shared. As a result, injuries observed on Child T were not shared with services that could have taken appropriate action to safeguard him.

SHARING SYSTEMS: This case has highlighted that there remain organisational barriers to the sharing of information, joint discussion and decision making. The lack of a shared information sharing system critically affected the ability to respond to this case, in terms of achieving a shared understanding of the risks and the appropriate action that was needed.

It is evident that current information sharing systems do not support and enable multiagency information sharing and are a barrier to agencies being systemic in their decision making.

It is important that the general public are supported to increase their awareness of how to share concerns that they may have for a child potentially at risk of harm.

The criminal investigation following Child T’s (Logan) death identified a number of adults who had contact with Child T and had concerns for his welfare and how he was treated within his family home. However, there were no reported concerns raised by the wider public to professionals prior to Child T’s death.

"Child T’s voice was not heard...There was no knowledge of the reality of his lived experience."

There was an absence of one-to-one sessions undertaken with Child T outside of his family home, this was in part caused by the Covid 19 pandemic restrictions and resulting pressures upon child protection systems at that time, such as high levels of staff absences due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

Child T’s voice was not heard; the complexities of the adult relationships involved in the care of Child T overshadowed professionals’ line of sight to him. There was no knowledge of the reality of his lived experience.

Children’s Services did not notify Child T’s father of their involvement with him. There was a lack of understanding from professionals of their duty to inform any person who holds parental responsibility for a child, of child protection concerns.

There were gaps in risk assessments and specialist skills around interrogating and analysing evidence; family reported different versions of events and family relationship histories. There were examples of risk management plans being stepped down without clear explanations as to how the risk had changed or could be managed in the longer term, for example Adult A’s convictions triggering safe care arrangements and this then being stepped down.

There were gaps in systemically considering the family’s context within wider themes; relationships that Adult A engaged in had a number of replicating themes that were not robustly considered. There was a lack of curiosity concerning the presence and impact of Adult A within the two families and the risks he posed within them. It seems that he was able to effectively manipulate his partners and some professionals he came into contact with.

Professionals did not fully explore the context of Child T’s race and ethnicity on his lived experience. With the value of hindsight, we know that both Adult A and Child Y held and expressed racist and discriminatory views that one would expect to have made life very hard for Child T within the family.

BRIDGEND CHILDREN'S SERVICES: Information demonstrated an inconsistent approach to the quality assurance of assessments and planning across several areas of case management. There was limited evidence that Child Protection Conference Reports and Care and Support Plans were consistently reviewed by supervisors.

CWM TAF MORGANNWG UNIVERSITY HEALTH BOARD: There appears to be a culture in which health staff are reluctant to challenge the clinical assessments and decisions made by more qualified professionals. With reference to the August 2020 Accident and Emergency attendance, some health staff were uncomfortable about the management of Child T during his assessment at the hospital but felt unable to express their concerns, either to the clinician or afterwards to others. Significantly, there was no use of the Health Board’s ‘Whistleblowing’ or escalation policies which would have been available as an alternative to a ‘face to face’ challenge.

MULTI AGENCY SAFEGUARDING HUB: The focus appeared at times to be maintained on agencies undertaking their agency’s role in ‘a silo’, as opposed to consistently operating as a Child Protection Enquiries team.

Across the agencies that were involved with Child T and his family, there is a clear theme of working environments under pressure that does not enable and create organisational conditions that support such complex work.

What happened to Logan Mwangi?

Logan was found in River Ogmore in Sarn, Bridgend at 5.45am on July 31, 2021.

His body was just 400 yards from the family home having been allegedly "fly-tipped like rubbish".

He was found with 56 external injuries as well as trauma to the brain, a torn liver and degloving of a part of his small intestine.

After the trial police released footage of the family after they reported Logan missing:

Medical experts said Logan's injuries were such that they were compared to a "fall from a great height" or a "high velocity road traffic collision".

In her closing speech to the jury, prosecutor Caroline Rees QC said Logan had been kept "like a prisoner" after developing Covid for the 10 days before his death.

She said: "He had been kept like a prisoner in his small bedroom - a room described by Angharad Williamson as 'like a dungeon' with the curtains closed and a barred child's gate stopping him from moving about the rest of the flat.

"That little boy was being made to face a wall as food was being delivered so other members of the house did not catch covid. What must have he thought of the way his life was in these 10 days?

"He was dehumanised by each of the defendants."

Cole and the youth were accused of moving Logan's body to the river while Williamson allegedly tried to remove incriminating evidence from the house and wash bloodstained bedsheets.

Here's the 999 call made by Logan's mother Angharad Williamson:

Williamson and the youth denied murder and perverting the course of justice. Cole denied murder but admitted perverting the course of justice.

Williamson and Cole also denied causing or allowing the death of a child.

The Logan Mwangi trial

What came out in court?

The court case had been ongoing for over eight weeks with the jury sworn in back on the 15th February.

During the court case, the jury was told that when officers arrived at the house, Logan's mother Angharad Williamson was cleaning sheets, the prosecution suggested it could have been to wash away her son's blood.

Investigations into the sheets following the family's arrest found that they had trace amounts of Logan's blood.

Angharad Williamson's evidence

Jurors were read transcripts of Williamson's police interviews, in which she repeatedly insisted she had found Logan's room empty in the early hours of July 31.

Cole claims Williamson found the little boy dead in his bed and that, after unsuccessfully performing CPR, they made the decision "to get him out of the house".

Williamson told police over the course of three interviews that she had no idea how her son received his fatal injuries.

She insisted that Cole was a great dad and had never been violent towards her or Logan.

In a final interview on August 4 2021, Williamson claimed two days before his death Cole had punched Logan several times to the stomach and "sent him flying".

She added that Cole had goaded the 14-year-old defendant into joining in the attack.

When asked why she was only revealing this now, she replied: "Jay is SAS, he'll have me killed."

She added: "His parents were the founding members of the SAS, I could never leave him, he told me if I ever left him he would have me killed.

"I'm terrified of him."

When pressed on her previous lies by interviewing officer Detective Sergeant Christian Burt, Williamson replied: "What part of 'I'm scared, this man is in the SAS' don't you understand?"

She claimed that after punching Logan three or four times, Cole had lifted the little boy's t-shirt up to see the bruise and remarked "that's a good one".

Williamson told police: "(Logan) wasn't crying, he was just standing there and he took it, I was mortified I didn't take him straight to hospital."

She added that she initially thought Logan might have run away in the wake of the assault.

Williamson said that after the attack on Logan, Cole had turned to the youth defendant and told him to "sweep" him if the victim were to "flinch one more time when I am trying to talk to him".

The defendant claimed she had checked Logan over and claimed he had only suffered some red marks as a result of the two assaults.

The night Logan died

John Cole and the youth defendant were caught on CCTV leaving the flat around 2.45am on July 31, Cole was filmed carrying something in his arms, which he later admitted was Logan's lifeless body.

During this time, a light can be seen switching on and off in the kitchen, which the prosecution said proves Williamson was awake and knew what had happened to her son.

Williamson claimed that the switch got stuck sometimes, and repeated that she had been asleep throughout.

When pressed, she responded: "I was not awake, I did not switch the light off, if I was awake I could have saved Logan, how many times do I have to tell you?"

The jury also heard how the 14-year-old boy told a care worker two weeks after the killing that he loved "to punch kids in the head", calling it "orgasmic".

They were told how he had a "desire for violence" and spoke of killing people.

In statements read to the court , the former foster family of the 14 year old said he had made their lives "hell" during the several weeks he lived with them last summer and that they were "terrified" of him.

They also said that on a number of occasions the youth had told them he wanted to kill Logan, but when they raised the concerns with the youth's social worker, she dismissed their claims.

The senior social worker for Bridgend County Council, denied any knowledge of the threats while being cross-examined.

Images from the trial

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