Disabled teen died in ‘her own filth’ as parents jailed
A mother and father who killed their morbidly obese daughter after leaving her bed-ridden in squalor have been jailed.
Kaylea Titford, 16, was found in conditions described as “unfit for any animal”, in soiled clothing and bed linen, following her death at the family home in Newtown, Powys, in October 2020.
The teenager’s parents were sentenced at Swansea Crown Court by Mr Justice Griffiths. Sarah Lloyd-Jones, 40, was imprisoned for six years while Alun Titford, 45, was told he would spend seven years and six months behind bars. The 16-year-old weighed 22st 13lb, with a BMI of 70, at the time of her death.
It was the first sentencing hearing in Wales to be filmed since the law was changed to allow cameras into crown courts last year. Lloyd-Jones had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence while Titford was convicted of the same offence after trial.
His trial heard Kaylea, who had spina bifida and used a wheelchair, died after suffering inflammation and infection from ulceration, arising from obesity and immobility. Emergency service workers, who were called to the house after she was found on 10 October, described feeling sick due to a “rotting” smell in her room.
Following her death, maggots were found which were thought to have been feeding on her body, the jury was told. The court heard that her bedsheets were soiled and she was lying on a number of puppy toilet training pads.
Her room was said to be dirty and cluttered, with bottles of urine and a chip fryer with drips of fat down the side, as well as a full cake in a box. Kaylea had attended Newtown High School, where she was described as “funny and chatty” by staff, but did not return following the coronavirus lockdown in March 2020.
Asked during his evidence why he had let his daughter down so badly, the removals worker said: “I’m lazy.”
Titford, who had six children with Lloyd-Jones, said the family would order takeaways four or five nights a week and he thought Kaylea had put on two or three stone since March.
The prosecution alleged that Kaylea had not used her wheelchair, which became too small for her, since the start of lockdown. Caroline Rees KC, prosecuting, asked Titford: “She hadn’t been out of bed, had she?” But he claimed he had seen her in the kitchen of the house in her wheelchair during that period, despite telling police in an interview that he had not seen her out of bed.
The court heard that Kaylea had been discharged from physiotherapy and dietetics services in the years before her death and had last been seen by a social worker at home in 2017.
Titford claimed Lloyd-Jones, who was a community care worker, was responsible for looking after Kaylea. He said he used to take her to medical appointments and care for her but stepped back when she reached puberty as he was not “comfortable”.
In cross-examination, he accepted he was as much to blame for Kaylea’s death as her mother.
PA
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