Teen ‘left to starve to death by his own family’
A TEENAGER starved to death at home because of appalling neglect by his family, a court heard yesterday.
Jordan Burling, 18, weighed less than six stone and looked like the victim of a Second World War death camp when his mother finally dialled 999.
He died on the living room floor before paramedics could treat him.
A further horror was to follow when police searched his bedroom and found the decomposed remains of a full-term baby boy hidden inside a rucksack, Leeds Crown Court was told.
The boy was Jordan’s brother. It is not known if he was stillborn but his remains had been kept secret by his mother Dawn Cranston, 45. She went on trial at Leeds Crown Court yesterday accused of her son Jordan’s manslaughter.
Jordan’s grandmother, Denise Cranston, 70, and sister Abigail Burling, 25, who allegedly shared responsibility for his care, face the same charge.
Jurors were warned about the distressing nature of the case and were shown photographs of Jordan as he deteriorated from an apparently healthy and happy boy to a malnourished young man.
Nicholas Lumley, QC, prosecuting, said: ‘For reasons which may never be understood, Jordan had been allowed to decay, to rot to death, by those closest to him.’
He told the court Jordan had ‘precious little’ to eat or drink in the six to eight weeks before his death on June 30, 2016, at the family home in Leeds. He was even put in nappies in his final months.
The family could not plead poverty and there was no underlying illness to explain his shocking condition, the jury heard. Jordan had not gone to school for six years and dropped off the radar of the authorities. Social services ‘played little part’ in his life. Mr Lumley said Jordan’s ‘needless death’ was down to neglect.
Dawn Cranston has never explained her actions, while Denise Cranston told police Jordan was not neglected. The pair, and Burling, have denied an alternative charge of causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult. Dawn Cranston has admitted concealing the death of the baby.
The case continues.