Logan Mwangi: Stepfather put boy's body in sports bag before leaving him by river, court hears

Article contains details from court which some readers may find distressing

A stepfather has told a court how he put his five-year-old stepson's body in a Nike bag before leaving him by a nearby river.

The body of Logan Mwangi, also known as Logan Williamson, was found in the River Ogmore in Pandy Park, Bridgend, on the morning of July 31 2021.

He had suffered catastrophic injuries likened to those found on victims of high-speed crashes or a fall from a height.

Logan's mother, Angharad Williamson, 30, his stepfather John Cole, and a 14-year-old boy, who cannot legally be identified, are on trial at Cardiff Crown Court accused of murder. All three deny the charge.

On Wednesday (March 30), Mr Cole was asked by David Elias QC about the days leading up to Logan's death.

Mr Cole told the court Logan "didn't understand" why he was being kept in his room due to a positive Covid test.

“He didn’t understand, he wouldn’t stay clear of us. When we went into his room we put a mask on and when we put his food down we asked him to look away until we were out of the room.”

Mr Cole told the jury that he and Angharad were “struggling” with Logan’s Covid isolation, as he was not happy being left out while he was kept in his bedroom. 

“Did you hit Logan on the Thursday that week?" Mr Elias asked Cole.

“No, not at all”. 

"Did you see Angharad hit Logan that day?"

“No”, replied Cole. 

Mr Elias began asking Mr Cole about Friday July 30, when Logan was still self-isolating. Cole said it was a “crazy” day in the house. 

“Logan was kicking off, running around all over the place, not doing what he was told to do, refusing to eat, just misbehaving.”

Mr Elias said: “How long did it go on?”

Cole said: “All day.”

Cole said he had tested negative in the morning for Covid, following which he and Angharad “decontaminated” his room.

Asked what he had done to discipline Logan that day, Cole said: “I smacked his hand and clipped him on the back of the head”. 

Later in the day, Cole said he “dropped” Logan on his bed, but he said he wasn’t sure how Logan landed. 

During the evening, Cole said Williamson picked Logan up by his top and, in doing so, ripped his dinosaur pyjamas. 

Cole also told the court about the bath they gave Logan on the Friday before he was found dead. “He hates water”, Cole said, explaining why bath time with Logan was never easy. 

“We spent hours putting him to bed”, Cole said, as he described Logan repeatedly dropping to his knees and refusing to go to his bedroom. 

“I got woke up just after two in the morning to Angharad screaming 'Logan’s dead'." 

“What did you do?”, Mr Elias asked.

“I went through to Logan’s bedroom and attempted to do CPR on him”, Cole replied.

Logan was lying on his bed, Cole said, with his legs cocked up to his stomach and his eyes wide open. 

“How did you feel when you saw him there?”, Mr Elias asked.

“Angharad had said she’d seen him take his last breath. I was trying to save him. I was literally trying to do CPR”. 

Eventually, Angharad said “please just stop, just stop”, he said.

Asked if he knew why Logan was in that state, Cole replied: “It just didn’t make sense at all”. 

Asked what happened next, Cole said: “Angharad put a Spiderman T-shirt on, I helped her put it on him, I put him in the Nike bag and carried him out.”

Mr Elias said: “Who suggested putting a Spiderman top on him?”

Cole said: “I don’t remember…. He didn’t have a top on when I went through to give him CPR.”

Mr Elias said: “Was there any conversation between the two of you before the top was put on and you put Logan in the Nike bag?”

Cole said: “We were panicking, both of us were – we didn’t know what to do. We mentioned about phoning the police and ambulance but Logan was already dead.”

Mr Elias said: “Why were you panicking?”

Cole said: “Because I had just come in to a dead child – it didn’t make sense…. Why he was dead.”

Mr Elias said: “Had you done anything at all to lead to his death? Did you know what caused him to die?”

Cole said: “No.”

Mr Elias said: “What was going through your mind?”

Cole said: “Angharad said to me: ‘What do we do? What do we do?' I said: ‘What do you want me to do?’ We went backwards and forwards for a good five minutes or so.”

Mr Elias said: “Why didn’t you call for an ambulance?”

Cole said: “Shock, panic... The situation didn’t make sense and I didn’t know what to do… I wasn’t thinking properly... Logan was deceased, he was already dead.”

Cole was then asked about taking Logan’s body down to the river, and then making a second journey with his ripped pyjama top. 

“When I went back to the house”, Cole told the jury, “Angharad handed me his dinosaur top and said: 'We need to get rid of this'. 

“It was all screwed up, I just put it in my pocket and left the property… and threw it in the bushes”. 

After lunch, Mr Cole continued his evidence. 

He said he and Angharad went into the living room to discuss what they were going to do. They decided to report Logan missing in the morning, but he said he could not remember whose idea that had been. 

On the subject of the 999 call made by Miss Williamson, Cole said: “I heard the start of the call but then [I] ran off to make it look like we were looking for Logan”. 

Cole says he asked Williamson how he died, to which she replied: “It was a freak accident”.

He said Williamson never asked him why Logan had died. 

“It was all overwhelming, I just didn’t know… I knew something was up, I knew something had happened”, Cole said. 

“I tried to lead the police to where I had left Logan.”

“Why did you do that?”, asked Mr Elias.

“I felt guilty for how I had just left him by the river, I knew it was wrong”. 

“Was it a surprise to you that you were arrested for something?", Cole was asked.

“No”, he replied.

He said both of them had been expecting the police to come and they had been discussing what to do in that eventuality. 

Mr Elias then turned to Cole’s guilty plea to perverting the course of justice. 

Mr Elias went through each part of the charge of perverting the course of justice, namely moving the body of Logan to the area of the river, removing clothing belonging to Logan to the river, and making a false report to police that Logan was missing. Cole accepted all of these. 

However, Mr Cole said he did not accept washing the blood stained clothing following Logan’s death. Mr Cole said there was not a sheet on the bed when Logan had gone to bed. He said it had been washed earlier in the day and had not been put back. 

“Did you play any part in inflicting the injuries that led to Logan’s death?" asked Mr Elias.

"No", said Cole. 

“Did you ever wish to harm Logan?"

"No", Cole replied.

The trial at Cardiff Crown Court continues.