A mum and dad whose daughter's body was found in a bedroom "unfit for an animal" have been jailed for their "shocking and prolonged neglect".
The body of Kaylea Titford, 16, was found covered in maggots and flies, in soiled clothing and bed linen, following her death at the family home in Newtown, Powys, in October 2020. The teenager's parents were sentenced at Swansea Crown Court by Mr Justice Griffiths.
Sarah Lloyd-Jones, 40, was imprisoned for six years while Alun Titford, 45, was told he would spend seven years and six months behind bars. Kaylea weighed 22st 13lb, with a BMI of 70, at the time of her death.
READ MORE: Photos show horrific bedroom of girl, 16, found dead in soiled clothes
It was the first sentencing hearing in Wales to be filmed since the law was changed to allow cameras into crown courts last year. Lloyd-Jones had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence while Titford was convicted of the same offence after trial.
His trial heard Kaylea, who had spina bifida and used a wheelchair, died after suffering inflammation and infection from ulceration, arising from obesity and immobility. Emergency service workers, who were called to the house after she was found on October 10, described feeling sick due to a "rotting" smell in her room.
Following her death, maggots were found which were thought to have been feeding on her body, the jury was told. Her bedsheets were soiled and she was lying on a number of puppy toilet training pads.
Her room was said to be dirty and cluttered, with bottles of urine and a chip fryer with drips of fat down the side, as well as a full cake in a box. Kaylea had attended Newtown High School, where she was described as "funny and chatty" by staff, but did not return following the coronavirus lockdown in March 2020.
Asked during his evidence why he had let his daughter down so badly, the removals worker said: "I'm lazy." Titford, who had six children with Lloyd-Jones, said the family would order takeaways four or five nights a week and he thought Kaylea had put on two or three stone since March.
The prosecution alleged that Kaylea had not used her wheelchair, which became too small for her, since the start of lockdown. Caroline Rees KC, prosecuting, asked Titford: "She hadn't been out of bed, had she?"
But he claimed he had seen her in the kitchen of the house in her wheelchair during that period, despite telling police in interview that he had not seen her out of bed. The court was told that Kaylea had been discharged from physiotherapy and dietetics services in the years before her death and had last been seen by a social worker at home in 2017.
Titford claimed Lloyd-Jones, who was a community care worker, was responsible for looking after Kaylea. He said he used to take her to medical appointments and care for her but stepped back when she reached puberty as he was not "comfortable".
In cross-examination he accepted he was as much to blame for Kaylea's death as her mother.
Passing sentence on Sarah Lloyd-Jones and Alun Titford at Swansea Crown Court, Mr Justice Griffiths said they had committed "shocking and prolonged neglect over lockdown". Mr Griffiths said: "(Kaylea) would not allow people so much as to push her wheelchair or open a door for her.
"Everything she could do for herself, she did. But she died just after her 16th birthday. You, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, her mother, and you, Alun Titford, her father, caused her death by shocking and prolonged neglect over lockdown.
"Which you, by your guilty plea, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, and the jury by a unanimous verdict, Alun Titford, have proved to be gross negligence manslaughter on your part."
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