Logan Mwangi: Angharad Williamson has bid to overturn conviction for murdering her son rejected

A mother who murdered her five-year-old son has lost a Court of Appeal bid to challenge her conviction.

Angharad Williamson was jailed for life last year after murdering her child Logan Mwangi in the Sarn area of Bridgend in 2021.

Her former partner John Cole and his stepson Craig Mulligan were also convicted of Logan's murder.

The trial revealed how Logan, a once "smiling, cheerful little boy", was subjected to a catalogue of injuries and horrific mental suffering before his death.

Williamson, Cole and Mulligan were also found to have conspired to cover-up the murder, claiming that Logan had gone missing despite CCTV showing Cole and Mulligan dumping his body at a nearby river.

Williamson's application to appeal was based on contending that the trial judge “wrongly excluded bad character evidence” about John Cole, which would have “assisted the jury in deciding who inflicted the injuries which caused Logan’s death.”

Some evidence relating to 41-year-old Cole, including allegations of violence towards Williamson and two former partners when he was a young man, racism and previous convictions for violence, was ruled inadmissible by the trial judge Mrs Justice Jefford.

Two people gave statements to the prosecution alleging that Cole was “very racist” and had been a member of the National Front, a fascist political party, in his early 20s.

One of the statements claimed Cole would have made Logan’s life “hell” on account of him being a mixed-race child.

The original trial judge, Justice Nerys Jefford, excluded this evidence because she said it was too historic and “not of sufficient probative value”.

Mr Rouch KC, for Angharad Williamson, submitted that Mr Cole’s racism “might suggest a motive.”

Summing up the decision on Wednesday (Jan 25), the Lord Chief Justice said: “Like the single judge, we are unpersuaded that these grounds of appeal are arguable.

“The alleged racist beliefs relied upon are 15 years old more. There was no evidence that racism played a part in this murder.“The evidence relating to violence against previous partners was also in respect of events that were 15 years old and more, and there was no evidence of intervening violence.“The previous convictions for violence were also old and the offences were committed when Cole was a young man. In our judgement the judge was fully entitled to conclude that none of this evidence had substantial probative value.

“Her ruling was, in truth impeccable.“It follows that this renewed application for leave to appeal against conviction is dismissed.”