Mum Angharad Williamson went from a luxury life as a stockbroker's daughter to a self-confessed "sh*t mother" who murdered her first-born son Logan Mwangi. The privately-educated schoolgirl went off the rails as a teenager but told a jury she "loved the bones" of "perfect baby" Logan.
The truth was that she was heard by neighbours to shout and swear at him including calling him a "b******" and "f***ing d***head" in the street.
Williamson claimed to be an "overprotective mother" but covered up attacks and abuse of Logan by lying to doctors, police, and social workers about his previous injuries. In his final few weeks on earth Logan had become miserable and anxious – wetting himself and self-harming by pinching himself or biting his lips until they bled. You can get more court news and other story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.
Read more: Logan Mwangi: The smiling little boy who stood no chance at the hands of his vicious killers
London-born Williamson is the daughter of City of London stockbrokers and attended private school before achieving 12 GCSEs to enrol on a filmmaking course at college in Southend. But after moving out of her mother's home as a teenager she got into trouble with the police for spending money on her mum's credit card and even taking her car on an illegal spin.
Williamson fell pregnant with Logan while living in Brentwood, Essex, and working as a manager at Carphone Warehouse at Westfield Stratford and gave birth a day after her 25th birthday in March 2016. During her pregnancy epileptic Williamson had seizures throughout and moved to south Wales to stay with her mum Clare who had retired to the village of St Brides Major near Bridgend so she could receive extra help. Hear the chilling 'sham' 999 call made by Logan Mwangi's mother hours after the murder.
She became estranged from Logan's father and the couple eventually split. Shortly afterwards Williamson – who had a part-time job working at the village post office – married a soldier who was based at a nearby barracks but the marriage broke down.
Williamson told the court she enjoyed her life as a single mum with Logan as she and her mother worked together to bring him up. She said: "I took pictures every day, I took pictures of him sneezing, of him coughing, I was so overjoyed by Logan. I loved the bones of that boy. My mum was like a second mum to Logan. She was great."
Asked about her relationship with Logan, Williamson said: "It was beautiful. I’m quite a needy emotional person and Logan was very cuddly, so is my mum. We were very close. Logan was my little sidekick. We did everything together, he was such beautiful a happy little boy. He was so clever, he wanted to explore the world and see what it was about. He was so clever and I was so proud, so proud, I put his photos up on my windows and showed him off on Facebook – I was so proud of him."
But her life took another backwards turn shortly after moving out of her mother's home once again. Williamson was awarded a two-bedroom council flat at Lower Llansantffraid in Sarn, Bridgend, in January, 2019 – the home where medics estimated Logan spent his tragic last hours dying in "extreme pain". You can read more stories about Bridgend here.
In April 2019 she met 6ft 4in and 15st John Cole on a night out in The Railway pub in Bridgend town centre and the couple soon began a relationship. You can read more about Cole, a racist bully who made the final part of Logan's short life a living hell, by going here.
Williamson had been deemed unable to work or drive due to her regular seizures and would pocket around £1,500 a month in benefits and not have to pay rent on her council flat and Cole would stay over regularly. She said her relationship with unemployed Cole was initially "perfect". She told the court how she would watch programmes on "pimple popping" and ingrowing toenails with Cole to help him by popping spots on his "sweaty" back after he returned from the gym or dealing with his life-long toe condition. She said: "I know it sounds weird but spot-popping is quite satisfactory because it’s cleanliness and clean."
But a few months into their relationship Williamson travelled to London to meet Logan's biological father and see her own father who lived nearby. Williamson said Cole repeatedly "interrogated" her about the visit when she returned to south Wales and demanded to know if she'd slept with Logan's biological dad. Williamson said: "He was very cold to me. I felt like I was being interrogated a lot."
Williamson said Cole would raise the issue with Logan repeatedly and quiz the five-year-old about it. But she claimed it was to cover for his own affair with a man he met at his gym. She said: "Jay would ask leading questions and say to Logan: 'Mummy and daddy were kissing, yes?' If you do that to a five-year-old then they're going to want to agree with you." She said: "It was because of his guilt because he had an affair with another man while I was in London."
Williamson admitted Logan was "picked on" by Cole and she did not challenge his cruel punishments of her son. In August 2020 Logan suffered a broken arm – an injury Williamson now admits covering up and lying to police about.
She told police that Logan had fallen down a flight of stairs and, thinking that he suffered a dislocated shoulder, tried to "pop it" back into place. It was not until January 2021 that Williamson told police Logan's fall was not accidental – and that the youngster had been pushed down the stairs by the youth defendant.
That phone call led to social services becoming involved with the family and Logan being placed on the child protection register. Williamson changed her story again at trial relating to the arm injury – saying that it was not her that tried to fix the dislocation but Cole.
Despite social services' involvement the abuse of Logan got worse and in May 2021 Williamson burned him with a boiling hot teaspoon she pulled from a cup of coffee. The wound was so serious Logan "yelped" and jumped back and was left with a burn mark to his neck. But Williamson and Cole decided to cover up the injury – successfully telling social workers that Logan had burned his neck on the bath tap.
Social worker Gaynor Rush believed their tale and two weeks after the burn Logan's status on the child protection register was stepped down from a "child in protection" to a "child in need" meaning they needed less frequent contact with the family.
Mum Williamson attempted to portray herself as a loving mother to Logan but admitted holding him by the arms and shouting: "Stop f***ing lying" on the day before his death.
The court heard she was "neurotic" about Covid-19 and when Logan tested positive 10 days before his death she locked him in his room away from the rest of the family. Photos released following the trial show the room, barred off with a gate, where he spent his final days.
Prosecutor Caroline Rees QC 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?"
Throughout much of her evidence Williamson portrayed herself as a victim – a mother grieving for her son who had been subjected to an oppressive relationship from Cole. In a tearful display Williamson told how she slept through the night of Logan's murder having taken a cocktail of prescription medication for epilepsy and depression. But her case was undone by CCTV evidence which showed lights being turned on and off in the family home at a time when she was the only one inside.
Digital experts found her phone was being accessed throughout the night with videos being played about pimple popping. A self-confessed "true crime" fan Williamson found herself arrested over Logan's murder the day after his body was found. She cried in the witness box as she shouted: "I didn't do it. I didn't hurt Logan" but the jury disagreed.
