The parents of a disabled teenager have been jailed for manslaughter after she died morbidly obese, having suffered “shocking and prolonged neglect over lockdown”.
Kaylea Titford was 146kg (22st 13lbs) when she died in October 2020, a few weeks after her 16th birthday. She was born with spina bifida, a spine condition that meant she could not use her legs, and had hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid in the brain.
When she died she was lying in a filthy bed, surrounded by junk, with maggots “feeding on her body” and flies buzzing over her head, Swansea crown court heard on Wednesday.
Her father, Alun Titford, 45, was convicted by a jury of manslaughter by gross negligence last month. He was jailed for seven years and six months.
Her mother, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, 40, pleaded guilty to the same charge in December. She and Titford had six children, the first born when she was 16, and lived together in Newtown, Powys, mid-Wales. She was jailed for six years.
Sentencing the couple at Swansea crown court on Wednesday, Mr Justice Griffiths said: “This was a horrifying case; a case of sustained neglect, leading to the death of a completely dependent, bed-ridden, vulnerable, disabled child at the hands of her own parents.”
Each parent was “equally responsible and equally culpable”, said the judge, but gave Lloyd-Jones a lower sentence in recognition of her late guilty plea.
The court heard that Lloyd-Jones ignored multiple offers of help from health experts in the months leading up to Kaylea’s death. Once schools reopened in September 2020, she made repeated excuses as to her daughter’s absence.
The parents’ lack of care for Kaylea’s basic needs, in particular nutrition and hygiene, was so poor that it was deemed a criminal offence. “This was not a lapse on the part of the defendants. It was a long and sustained period of criminal negligence,” said the judge.
It is believed to be the first prosecution of its kind in the UK in which parents have been charged with killing their child by not controlling their diet. Prosecutors said it was one of the most severe cases of neglect to reach trial in Wales.
At the parents’ sentencing hearing on Wednesday, texts from and about Kaylea were read out by Caroline Rees KC, for the prosecution.
Two months before she died, Kaylea’s older sister, Sophie, sent a message to Lloyd-Jones raising concern about Kaylea’s room.
“Not being funny, but you need to sort Kaylea’s room. It’s a fucking mess,” wrote Sophie on 20 August 2020. “Nothing can be found because of what a mess it is. It’s disgusting. Kaylea had a bag of piss left from this morning and yesterday on the floor. It’s fucking disgusting, mum.”
The court also heard of multiple texts Kaylea sent to her mother asking for help after she had soiled herself. Ten days before she died, the teenager asked: “Can you come and check if I have pooed because it stinks?” Her mother replied “FFS”, which the court heard meant “for fuck’s sake”.
Kaylea also often asked for help when her legs were “leaking”. On 28 September, she complained that the flies buzzing around her room were “doing my fucking head in”. Lloyd-Jones replied: “They like you. Lol.”
Lloyd-Jones initially tried to suggest she was not responsible for text messages sent to Kaylea, telling police someone else must have used her phone, Rees told the court.
She worked as a carer in 2020 and had become “overwhelmed” by the pressure of caring for her family single-handed during lockdown, her barrister, Lewis Power KC, said. She and Titford had a tempestuous relationship, with police called to the house on multiple occasions when he had been aggressive, the court heard.
But when police arrived at the family home on 10 October 2020 it was because Titford’s mother had called them after her son told her Kaylea was dead in bed.
When officers arrived they found more than 100 flies stuck to flypaper above the bed where Kaylea lay dead. Her bed linen was soiled and she lay on filthy “puppy pads” that had absorbed leakages from her body.
Her hair was dirty and matted and her toenails had not been cut for at least six months. Her skin was severely inflamed and ulcerated, at some points so deeply that fat was exposed. There were bottles of urine from her catheter on the floor by her bed.
She was surrounded by junk food wrappers and her bedroom appeared to be being used as a dumping ground for broken appliances, including a filthy deep-fat fryer and a pressure washer.
In the three months before she died, the family spent £1,035.76 on junk food and takeaways, Rees told the court.
The court heard that while Kaylea had struggled with her weight for much of her life, she attended mainstream school and enjoyed sport, especially wheelchair basketball. Staff at Newtown high school described her as “funny” and “fiercely independent”. The judge said she had “made a success of her life”.
Just 1.45 metres tall (4ft 8in), Kaylea had a body mass index of 70 when she died.
“There was no attempt to control her diet. She could only eat what she was given which, by the end, was the same fattening takeaways that everyone else was eating,” said Mr Justice Griffiths.
Her parents did not replace her wheelchair when she outgrew it, so she was stuck in bed becoming ever more dangerously obese. Though her bedroom was adapted for her and had an ensuite disabled toilet she hadn’t been able to use it for at least a year, the court heard.
“By the time of her death, she was lying in her own filth, surrounded by flies which bothered her and maggots which fed on her. Her flesh was disfigured by ulcers which left her skin open down to the fat and in one place down to the bone,” said the judge, adding: “For a girl of her age and independent spirit, this was a particularly terrible state to find herself in.”
Giving evidence, Titford said he was a “lazy” man who should and could have done more to help his daughter, but said he did not feel comfortable looking after her once she reached puberty.
The court heard he was diagnosed with depression about 10 years ago and that in the past he has been voluntarily admitted to psychiatric hospital, sometimes because of depression and sometimes because of drug-induced psychosis. But the judge ruled that Titford had “no mental disorder, learning disability or lack of maturity which substantially reduces his responsibility”.
Kaylea’s cause of death was recorded as “inflammation and infection in extensive areas of ulceration arising from obesity and its complications, and immobility in a girl with spina bifida and hydrocephalus”.
An NSPCC Cymru spokesperson said it was essential that a forthcoming child safeguarding practice review “must leave no stone unturned in establishing what more could have been done to protect Kaylea so other children do not suffer such appalling neglect unnoticed”.
