Five-year-old boy brutally murdered, dumped in river by mother, stepfather and unknown teen

The mother and stepfather of a five-year-old boy whose body was found dumped in a river in Sarn, Bridgend County, have been found guilty of his murder. A 14-year-old, whose identity has not been revealed due to legal reasons, has also been found guilty of the murder.

Angharad Williamson, 31 and John Cole, 40, were convicted of killing Logan Mwangi at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday. The sentence will be announced at a later date.

Logan's battered and bruised body was found last year in July in River Ogmore. His mother Angharad Williamson had reported Logan missing on July 31 saying that he had been kidnapped by a woman she held a grudge against.

When the police arrived at their apartment, Williamson was in a hysterical state while Cole and the teenager were seen walking around calling out for Logan. The prosecutors argued that this was part of an "elaborate" cover-up concocted by the defendants.

Cole, in fact, had been captured on a neighbour's CCTV camera carrying Logan's body to the river alongside the teenager. They were also caught coming back to the house to pick up the dinosaur pyjama top that Logan had been wearing. The top was later found in a wooded area with a big cut on it.

Logan had suffered 56 external cuts and bruises and internal injuries similar to the injuries sustained in a high-speed car crash, according to a report in the BBC. Experts claim that the injuries could have only been caused by a "brutal and sustained assault," inflicted days before his death or hours leading up to his death.

He had extensive bruising to the back of his head and tears in his liver and bowel. Cole had already pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice, which Williamson and the teenage boy denied.

The couple's friends said that Cole had told them "he did not like Logan." The boy had also suffered a collarbone injury weeks before he died. It is also being reported that he was kept caged like a "prisoner in his own house" after he tested positive for Covid.

"He had been kept like a prisoner in his small bedroom in the flat you saw, a room likened by Williamson as a dungeon," said Prosecutor Caroline Rees QC.

Detective Inspector Lianne Rees, who led the murder investigation said: "It is difficult to imagine how Logan must have suffered at the hands of those who he trusted, and inconceivable that those who should have loved and protected him betrayed him in the worst possible way."