June 2022 14-year old sentenced for murder A 14-year-old has been sentenced to life in prison – to serve a minimum of 15 years – for murdering Logan Mwangi can now be named as his stepbrother Craig Mulligan. The teenager was convicted of the five-year-old’s murder alongside his stepfather John Cole and stepmother Angharad Williamson. Mulligan was just 13 when he played his part in Logan’s death and the cover-up which saw the young boy’s body dumped in the River Ogmore in Bridgend, South Wales. The youth was seen on CCTV accompanying Cole, who was carrying Logan’s body, to the river from Williamson’s home in the early hours of July 31, 2021 He also assisted in discarding Logan’s ripped dinosaur pyjama in a second trip to the area near the River Ogmore and after daybreak he and Cole walked the streets shouting Logan’s name – having dumped his body in the river just hours earlier. Yesterday Cole, Williamson, and Mulligan were locked up for a combined total of 72 years with each handed life sentences A trial at Cardiff Crown Court heard Logan suffered catastrophic injuries to his abdomen including a torn liver, bowel, and duodenum and a number of brain injuries as well as 56 cuts and bruises to his body. The injuries were likened to those seen in a high-velocity car crash or a fall from great height. Logan died just a week after Mulligan came to live at Lower Llansantffraid after the family courts awarded custody of the teenager to Cole with the support of Williamson. It was later claimed by Williamson he had already admitted pushing Logan downstairs, causing him to break his arm, though during Thursday’s sentencing hearing judge Mrs Justice Jefford said she had not taken this into account as the evidence was “thoroughly unsatisfactory”. He was placed into Logan’s home just five days before the murder after Cole and Williamson were granted custody of him. He had spent the previous six months in care and was heard making threats to kill Logan – who he referred to as “the five-year-old”. Two days before Logan’s body was recovered from the river, Mulligan was said by Williamson to have attacked her son along with Cole. The court heard Cole punched Logan to the stomach two or three times and told Mulligan to “let him have it” Mulligan, who trained in Muay Thai, was said to have swept Logan’s feet, knocking him to the floor while pressing his head against the floor. He was also said to have told his foster family he wanted to kill Logan. Mulligan was found guilty of Logan’s murder at Cardiff Crown Court on April 21. He was sentenced alongside Cole and Williamson on Thursday when he was handed a life term with a minimum of 15 years. Throughout the trial and sentencing hearing, Mulligan’s identity was protected by a court order under Section 45 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 due to the defendant being under 18 years old and legally considered a juvenile. This prevented the publication of his name, address, identity of school or educational establishment he attended, any place of work, or a still or moving image of him. Once the guilty verdict had been delivered by the jury, an application was made by representatives of the media to revoke the Section 45 order. Following the sentencing of Cole, Williamson, and Mulligan the trial judge agreed to this application due to the serious nature of the conviction and Mulligan’s identity could be reported. While giving evidence in court, they accused each other of harming Logan. Williamson collapsed to the ground crying “no, no, no, no, no” as she and the teen were also convicted of perverting the course of justice. She started screaming at Cole: “You lying motherf****** murderer, you lying murderer.” So why did they turn on each other? During the trial, prosecutor Caroline Rees QC said Logan had been “dehumanised” by his family in the weeks and months leading up to his death. Logan’s stammer is said to have worsened, becoming particularly bad around Cole, and the five-year-old would wet himself more frequently and began self-harming. Those who knew Cole said he did not like Logan due to his “racist” tendencies and he began calling the youngster ‘Coco Pop’ because of his mixed race. All three defendants denied murder, while Cole and Williamson also denied causing or allowing the death of a child. But Cole did admit to perverting the course of justice by moving Logan’s lifeless body after claiming Williamson had told him her son had died in a “freak accident”. He said: “I woke up to Angharad screaming: ‘He’s dead, Logan’s dead’. He was lying on his back with his head to the side in a weird position. His eyes were wide open. I moved his head and it flopped and there was no response. “I tried to perform CPR and blew in his mouth and held his nose. There was no pulse. I did this for ages, like 10 to 15 minutes. Angharad was frantic and hyperventilating. I was desperate to save him. “Eventually I stopped and she said: ‘He’s dead, he’s dead’. There’s nothing I could do. Angharad said she could hear him taking his last breath.” Cole also told police that after dumping Logan’s body Williamson had told him to get rid of Logan’s ripped pyjama top, which he dumped in woodland. Williamson maintained she genuinely believed Logan had gone missing but in her fifth police interview she claimed Cole and the youth had attacked Logan. During her police interview Williamson told officers: “I feel conned, so conned. I wish I had never met [Cole]. They’ve ruined my life.” She later said: “I don’t want him anywhere near me again.” It was in her fifth interview that Williamson, who had previously denied knowledge of what caused her son’s injuries, started to blame Cole. She said: “He punched him in the stomach. Logan was lying about something as he regularly does and he’s got a stutter and can’t get words out. Jay will kill me for saying this that’s why…. “I thought Logan was okay. He hit him a couple of times in the stomach because he wouldn’t talk. I said: ‘Stop it, you’re being too harsh’ and he said: ‘The only way this boy understands is pain’. I said: ‘No, stop’ and we had a massive row. I should have reported it but I thought he was okay. I didn’t know he hit him that hard. Logan was okay.” Williamson claimed she was frightened of Cole and was scared he would kill her “for talking”. While giving evidence in court, the pair accused each other of harming Logan. They also disputed which one of them popped Logan’s shoulder back into place after it was dislocated. When asked why she initially did not tell police about the attack on Logan, Williamson said: “I was scared… Of Jay…. He told me he was in the SAS, he had been in prison before, had connections.…. At first I felt safe by it, I had a man who protected me from everything but it wasn’t protection but ‘I will find you’ and it was scary.” She also told the court she was “overprotective” of Logan, and said her relationship with her son was “beautiful”. Williamson said: “I took pictures of him sneezing, of him coughing, I was so overjoyed by Logan. I loved the bones of that boy.” Yesterday the twisted pair were sentenced to life imprisonment, with Cole ordered to serve a minimum of 29 years before he is eligible for parole and Williamson 28 years. While the youth defendant was handed a life detention with a minimum of 15 years April 2022 Logan Mwangi murder: Mother, stepdad, teenager guilty A mother, stepfather and a teenage boy have been found guilty of murdering a five-year-old boy and dumping his body in a river. Angharad Williamson, 31, John Cole, 40, and a 14-year-old, who cannot be named, killed Logan Mwangi in July 2021. Logan’s body was found in the River Ogmore, close to his home in Sarn, Bridgend county. He died after suffering a “brutal and sustained” attack at home, leaving him with “catastrophic” injuries. The prosecution said Logan’s body was dumped in the River Ogmore on 31 July like “fly-tipped rubbish”. Police officers found the schoolboy partially submerged in the water wearing a pair of dinosaur pyjama bottoms and a Spider-Man top just 250 metres from his home. The youngster had 56 “catastrophic” injuries, including extensive bruising to the back of his head and tears in his liver and bowel, which experts said were so severe they were consistent with those seen in road traffic accidents. Experts also said the injuries could have only been caused by a “brutal and sustained assault” inflicted on Logan in the hours, or days, prior to his death, adding the injuries were “consistent with child abuse”. During the trial, jurors had heard how Logan was treated like a prisoner in the days before his death. On July 20 Logan tested positive for Covid-19 and the jury heard how he was shut in his bedroom with a baby gate barring him from leaving. Prosecutor Caroline Rees QC said Williamson and Cole made him face the wall when they took him food. The jury were also played extensive CCTV footage from nearby houses around the time of the incident, in it Cole and the teenager were seen at 02:43 BST on 31 July moving Logan’s body to the nearby river where they dumped him They were caught again as they came back to the house to pick up the dinosaur pyjama top Logan had been wearing to take to the river, which police found in a wooded area with a big cut in. Williamson told the jury she was asleep all night, but CCTV showed the lights going on and off in Logan’s room and the curtains being opened. There was also evidence showing she had used her phone at time to watch videos on YouTube. The jury were also played a frantic 999 call from Williamson recorded hours later telling police her son was missing. They were also shown bodycam footage from police who arrived at the house shortly after, where Cole appeared to be comforting a distraught Williamson. All of this, the jury found, were lies. As Williamson was found guilty of murdering her son, she fell to the floor screaming “no, no, no”. She struggled being led from the dock and shouted at Cole calling him a liar and a murderer. The jury of seven women and five men took just five hours to reach verdicts after a trial lasting eight weeks at Cardiff Crown Court. Some became upset as the verdicts were handed down.  Mrs Justice Jefford thanked the jury for the “exceptional public service” and said they had “listened to often very unpleasant and emotional evidence.” She said it was “no less than Logan Mwangi deserved”.  Mrs Justice Jefford said she would excuse them from undertaking jury service in the future because of the nature of the evidence they had listened to. Cole had already pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice, while Williamson and the boy had denied perverting the course of justice, but were found guilty. Cole, Williamson and the teenager had all denied murder, but were found guilty following a trial. They will all be sentenced at a later date.