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A father has been found guilty of the manslaughter by gross negligence of his 16-year-old disabled daughter who was morbidly obese when she was found dead at the family home in Newtown, Powys, in October 2020.
Kaylea was found in conditions described as ‘unfit for any animal’, in soiled clothing and bed linen and weighed 22st 13lb, with a BMI of 70, at the time of her death, a trial heard.
A jury at Mold Crown Court heard how Kaylea wasn’t seen in the last nine months of her life by a medical professional and hadn’t returned to school in September 2020.
The prosecution said the parents’ failures were hidden from the outside world because of the national Covid lockdown.
By the time of her death, Kaylea was immobile in her soiled bed- her hair was dirty and matted and her toenails had not been cut for at least six months. Her skin was also severely inflamed and ulcerated.
Alun Titford was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence
Kaylea Titford, 16, weighed 22 stone and 13 lbs, with a body mass index of 70, when she died in October 2020
Prosecutor Caroline Rees KC said Kaylea couldn’t access her bathroom and toilet and lay in her own human waste.
She said: ‘It must have been an entirely wretched experience which you wouldn’t wish on any animal, let alone a vulnerable disabled child.’
When asked during his evidence why he had let his daughter down so badly, Kaylea’s father Alun Titford said: ‘I’m lazy.’
Kaylea’s mother, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, 39, pleaded guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence last year however father, Alun Titford, denied the offence along with an alternative charge of causing or allowing the death of a child.
The court heard that 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.
The court heard that her bedsheets were soiled and she was lying on a number of puppy toilet training pads.
Images and body-cam footage showed the cluttered and dirty interior of the home which contained soiled clothing, a bottle of urine, a catheter on the floor, and multiple bug infestations.
The court heard that 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.
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 16-year-old was tragically found lying in soiled clothing and bed linen after she had passed away
She weighed 22 stone and 13 lbs, with a body mass index of 70, when she was found dead in October 2020 at her home in Newtown, Powys, Wales
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 heard 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.
A spokesman for Powys County Council said: ‘Following the conclusion of court proceedings, a concise child practice review is to be carried out and will involve all relevant agencies following a clear statutory framework.
‘The local authority does not feel able to comment until this process has been completed.’
