Logan’s father not told of social services’ actions
AGENCIES failed to notify Logan Mwangi’s father that his son was subject to social services involvement.
Had he been told, the five-yearold’s father said he could have saved his son’s life.
In May 2021, a unanimous decision by multi-agency professionals was made to remove Logan from the child protection register, as he was no longer deemed at risk of “significant harm”. The family would continue to be supported on a “care and support basis”.
Startlingly, the decision was made not to inform Mr Mwangi.
He had last seen his son in 2019 when Logan and his mum Angharad Williamson travelled to his home in Essex, but Logan’s stepfather John Cole forbade Williamson to see the father of her child again.
Mr Mwangi was not aware of social services involvement in his son’s life and decisions were made by the relevant authorities not to tell him. He had not been invited to a child protection conference in relation to Cole’s criminal convictions.
The child practice report stated: “The minutes of the review child protection conference document that consideration had been given to contacting [Logan’s father].
“The minutes note the following rationale that ‘given the domestic violence and there having been no contact with [Logan] for a very long time the decision was made not to make contact with him’.
“This review has seen no information that evidences [Logan’s] father was a perpetrator of domestic abuse against Logan’s mother.
“However, if there are concerns in respect of a person with parental responsibility this should be riskmanaged to support their engagement, not be a rationale for not seeking to engage them.”
The conclusions of the report stated there was a “lack of understanding” from professionals of their duty to inform Mr Mwangi of child protection concerns.
Had he been told about the situation, Mr Mwangi previously said: “I probably would have tried to take him away. Why didn’t they do anything to make it a safe environment for him when it clearly wasn’t?”
Speaking previously about his son, he said: “I loved him so much and somehow I have to live my life knowing that I will never get to see him grow up to be the wonderful man he would have been.”