Son looked poorly last time I saw him, father tells court

THE ESTRANGED father of a 18-year-old man who died after he was found in an emaciated state in his home has told a jury he last saw his son looking pale and drawn six months before his death.

Leeds Crown Court has heard how Jordan Burling was found wearing a soiled nappy and weighing less than six stone in his house in the Farnley area of Leeds in June 2016.

Prosecutors said Jordan’s condition was described by an expert as like the victim of a Second World War death camp.

Jordan’s father Steven Burling, 51, was giving evidence yesterday on the third day of the trial of Jordan’s mother Dawn Cranston, 45, who is accused of manslaughter, along with his grandmother, Denise Cranston, 70, and his sister Abigail Burling, 25.

Shelf-stacker Mr Burling told the jury that he separated from Dawn Cranston when Jordan was in primary school and did not see his son again until he was in his mid-teens.

He said when they first met again he thought Jordan looked “healthy”.

Mr Burling said: “He was quite tubby. It wasn’t fat, fat.

“It wasn’t obese. He was just sort of stockily built.”

He told the court he last saw Jordan before Christmas 2015. “He looked pale,” Mr Burling said.

“He was drawn in a little bit. I asked him if he was all right. He said it must be something he’s ate. “He looked poorly.” Mr Burling told the jury: “He still looked a bit tubby when I saw him. He was just drawn in his face. There wasn’t colour in his face.”

The witness became visibly upset as he recalled his last meeting with his son at his home in the Seacroft area of Leeds.

He said he had difficulty recalling the details because, he said: “I put a brick wall in front. I can’t really grieve”.

Asked about Dawn Cranston’s parenting in the years they were together, Mr Burling said she was “a good mum, a caring mum”.

Dawn and Denise Cranston and Abigail Burling all deny manslaughter.

They also deny an alternative count of causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult.