Voice of murdered Logan Mwangi not heard by authorities, as review details extensive injuries
Five-year-old Logan Mwangi’s voice was not heard by authorities during his short life, a review detailing the extensive injuries he suffered has found.
Almost a year before his death, the boy was seen by a doctor who noted the child had multiple bruises on his body and a blue mark near his genitals.
Thirty-one images were taken of injuries, during a health assessment undertaken by a paediatric doctor in August 2020, a review commissioned by the Cwm Taf Morgannwg Safeguarding Board said.
The injuries included a 1cm blue mark above the child’s penis.
Logan’s mother Angharad Williamson told the Health Board she did not know how the mark had occurred.
Other injuries included bruises to the boy’s ankle, forehead, ears, arm, cheeks and a carpet bruise to his chin.
Williamson said Logan would bang his head, pinch himself and that the mark to his ears was from a mask.
The little boy was present during the discussion between his mother and a health worker, the review stated.
He said he had fallen down the stairs and agreed when his mother gave the cause of the bruising to his ears as being from a mask worn due to the pandemic.
He also stated that he banged his head and pinched himself when he got angry.
The review concluded that there was no evidence that information about the injuries recorded by the doctor was shared with agencies outside of the Health Board.
The board, which published its review on Thursday, said there had been an absence of one-to-one sessions with Logan outside of his family home.
The review said this was due in part to restrictions during the pandemic, as well as “resulting pressures upon child protection systems at that time, such as high levels of staff absences” due to Covid 19.
The review stated that Logan’s “voice was not heard” and that “the complexities of the adult relationships” involved in his care “overshadowed professionals’ line of sight to him”.
“There was no knowledge of the reality of his lived experience,” it added.
The review stated that there had been a failure to share some of Logan’s injuries with “services that could have taken appropriate action to safeguard him”.
It said several injuries, even in isolation, “should have triggered” a child protection referral.
Weeks before he died in July 2021, Logan suffered a broken collarbone but he never got medical treatment, the trial of his killers heard.
As she sentenced Logan’s mother Angharad Williamson, his stepfather John Cole and his stepbrother 14-year-old Craig Mulligan earlier this year, Mrs Justice Jefford said Logan had been subjected to a “brutal attack” before his death.
She told the trio: “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.”
She said the injuries suffered by Logan were the “sort of injuries seen in abused children”.
“The inflicting of these injuries on a small, defenceless five-year-old is nothing short of horrifying,” she added.
Tracey Holdsworth, assistant director for NSPCC Wales, said: “It is a tragedy that Logan’s voice was not heard during his short life. This must be a turning point to ensure no child who needs help goes unheard again.
“This review lays bare an all too familiar story of a system struggling to cope and reflects our previous concerns about the impact of Covid-19 on children’s ability to seek help and the response of professionals.
“The lack of an effective system to share information between agencies must not be a barrier to multi-agency working.”
She said it is “vital” the recommendations are fully implemented and called on the Welsh Government to “act now on its commitment to radically transform children’s social care to build a better joined-up child protection system that prevents abuse and neglect”.
Timeline of key events
- March 15 2016: Logan Mwangi is born in the Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend, to Angharad Williamson and Benjamin Mwangi. Their relationship quickly breaks down and Mr Mwangi moves back to Brentwood, Essex.
- June 2016: Mr Mwangi visits Logan in Bridgend for their first Father’s Day together and they have regular contact. Williamson and Logan move in with Mr Mwangi in Essex but by August have returned to Wales.
By the end of the year, Williamson had married another man, but the relationship became violent. During this time, contact between Logan and his father ceases.
- 2019: Contact between Logan and his father resumes. In April, Williamson takes Logan to visit Mr Mwangi and his family in Essex. This was the last time Mr Mwangi saw Logan, as Williamson was in a relationship with Cole and was preventing access.
- August 16 2020: Logan is taken to hospital by his mother, Williamson, who said he sustained a dislocated shoulder when he fell down the stairs the day before. Doctors examining Logan find he has a broken arm. The hospital makes a referral to social services and Williamson gives a statement to the police.
- January 21 2021: Williamson calls 101 and during the conversation tells the operator the youth defendant had confessed to pushing Logan down the stairs when he fractured his arm.
- June 2021: Social workers in Bridgend remove Logan and his younger sibling from the child protection register – meaning they are no longer considered to be at significant risk of harm.
- July 2021: At some point during the weeks before his death, Logan suffered a broken collarbone. There are no records of the injury being treated.
- July 20 2021: Logan tests positive for Covid-19 and has to self-isolate.
- July 29 2021: Logan is allegedly seriously assaulted by both Cole and the youth, an incident which Williamson claimed included Logan being punched in the stomach by Cole.
- July 30 2021: Williamson allegedly lifts Logan up forcefully by his pyjama top, causing it to rip, and shouts at him to “tell the truth”. The same day, social worker Deborah Williams visits the flat but is denied entry, as Logan has Covid-19. She stays for 20 minutes and leaves without seeing or hearing Logan.
- July 31 2021, 2.30am: CCTV shows Cole carrying Logan’s body out of the flat and towards the river, while being followed by the youth. They return to the property but leave again to dispose of Logan’s ripped pyjama top.
At about 5.45am Williamson makes a 999 call to police, claiming to have woken to find Logan missing from the house, and accusing another woman of having taken him.
Two police officers searching the nearby park area just after 6am discover Logan’s body in the River Ogmore. Logan was allowed to leave self-isolation the day he was found dead.
- April 21 2022
Cole, Williamson and a 14-year-old youth are found guilty at Cardiff Crown Court of murdering Logan.
- June 30 2022
Cole is jailed at Cardiff Crown Court for life with a minimum term of 29 years while Williamson is ordered to serve a minimum of 28 years.
That same day the 14-year-old boy is named as Craig Mulligan after a judge lifts an anonymity order. Mulligan is sentenced to a minimum of 15 years’ detention.
- November 24 2022
An extended child practice review commissioned by the Cwm Taf Morgannwg Safeguarding Board finds issues it says might be “systemic” rather than “isolated instances of individual error or poor practice” regarding the handling of the Logan Mwangi case.
The board says the boy’s voice had not been heard throughout and that there was “no knowledge of the reality of his lived experience”.
The board said “significant core learning” had been identified and made a series of local and national recommendations.
They include suggesting the Welsh Government considers commissioning a review of approaches to undertaking Child Protection Conferences to identify effective chairing and facilitation methods and to identify best practice, and the possibility of commissioning an annual National Awareness Campaign to raise public awareness on how to report safeguarding concerns.
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