Angharad Williamson and John Cole

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Angharad Williamson and John Cole are a Welsh couple who abused and murdered Williamson's five-year-old son Logan Mwangi with the help of their stepson Craig Mulligan. Logan, the son of Williamson and her former partner Benjamin Mwangi, was beaten to death after sustaining severe physical abuse for over a week before being dumped in a river by Cole and the unnamed youth.

Biography

Logan Mwangi was born to Angharad Williamson and Benjamin Mwangi on 15 March 2016. The two split up in August of that year and Logan went to live with Williamson. In April 2019 Williamson met and began dating John Cole, a man with an extensive criminal record for assault, battery and perverting the course of justice. Williamson began drifting away from her family after meeting Cole, and Logan began self-harming and wetting himself in Cole's presence, presumably having sustained abuse from him. Cole, a member of the National Front, also "dehumanised" Logan due to his mixed-race heritage, later cited as a potential motive for the murder. Craig Mulligan, a mentally unstable teenager, was staying with them after being placed into care.

On 21 July 2021, Logan was placed into self-isolation after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Over the next few days Logan suffered severe abuse at the hands of Williamson, Cole and Mulligan and was regularly beaten and insulted. He was also starved and forced to do push-ups until he collapsed from exhaustion. On 29 July Cole punched him in the stomach after he began stuttering before ordering Mulligan to "sweep" him if he did so again. When he did, Mulligan used a standing sweep to knock his legs out from under him and slammed his head into the ground. CCTV after this incident appeared to show Williamson and Mulligan having a confrontation in the street. Williamson claimed to have been trying to get Logan help when Mulligan blocked her way; however, neighbours testified that she had actually been berating him for "making a scene". Other injuries on Logan's body included a burn mark, the result of Williamson having burnt Logan's neck with a spoon from her coffee. Logan's social worker Deborah Williams observed the burn during a visit, but Williamson had claimed he had burned himself on a hot water tap.

On 30 July, Williamson, frustrated with Logan's behaviour after he refused to eat his food and said Cole was not his real father, angrily shook him and called him a "fucking liar". Later that day, Deborah Williams made an unscheduled visit to the house but was denied access to Logan by Williamson and Cole. The following day, Williamson called the police and reported Logan missing. Around an hour after the search began, Logan's body was pulled from the River Ogmore. Officers attempted to perform CPR, but he was already dead. At first it was thought that he had either drowned accidentally or been abducted by a neighbour.

However, it soon became apparent that this was not the case. When officer Ryan Matthews arrived to inform Williamson that a body had been found, he noticed that the tumble dryer was going. It was later found that it contained a recently-washed bedsheet of Logan's and that his pillow and duvet, which had not yet been washed, had his blood on them. Meanwhile, Williamson proceeded to the Princess of Wales hospital to identify Logan's body. While she initially appeared to be crying hysterically, nurses Rosie O'Neill and Sarah-Lee Thorne observed that she never once shed a tear, suggesting she was faking it. She also said that she felt responsible because she never taught Logan to swim several minutes before she was first informed that Logan was found in the river.

In addition, in her police interview Williamson claimed that Logan had been "completely well" the night before his disappearance. Logan's autopsy showed the opposite; he had extensive bruising and injuries all over his body, several of which were partially healed, showing that they had been inflicted some time before his death and he had had time to partially recover. CCTV footage from the night of 30 July showed Cole and Mulligan carrying a large object, presumably Logan's body, out of the house. Williamson claimed to police that she was asleep during this time, but the CCTV also showed somebody moving around inside and turning the lights on while Cole and Mulligan were absent. Williamson's Internet history showed that during the time Logan's body was being moved she had checked her bank account and watched online videos, further proving she could not have been asleep.

Williamson, Cole and Mulligan were all arrested and charged with murder and perverting the course of justice. Williamson and Cole both testified against each other, describing each other's actions against Logan in an attempt to blame each other for his death. Forensic pathologists Deborah Stalker, George Lammie and John Williams testified at trial that Logan's injuries showed he had been subjected to a sustained assault for at least a day, and possibly a week, and that he would have survived if he had been taken to hospital. Instead, concluded Dr. Stalker, he had been left to die from his injuries and thrown in the river post-mortem. Williamson, Cole and Mulligan were all convicted. On 30 June 2022, all three defendants were given life sentences. Williamson was ordered to serve a minimum of 28 years, Cole a minimum of 29 and Mulligan a minimum of 15.