Parents convicted of killing their disabled daughter to be sentenced
Parents convicted of killing their 16-year-old disabled daughter by allowing her to become morbidly obese during lockdown will be sentenced today in Wales’s first televised court hearing
- Kaylea Titford, 16, was found in conditions described as ‘unfit for any animal’
- Alun Titford, 45, was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence
- Her mother, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, 39, previously admitted the same charge
A mother and father are to be sentenced for killing their 16-year-old disabled daughter in what will be the first court hearing in Wales to be televised.
Kaylea Titford, who suffered from spina bifida, was found dead at her home in Newtown, Powys, in October 2020 after her parents allowed her to become morbidly obese during lockdown.
Her mother, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, 39, admitted manslaughter by gross negligence last year, while her father, Alun Titford, denied the charges and was found guilty after a trial last month.
The teenager weighed 22st 13lb with a BMI of 70 at the time of her death, and her body was discovered inside her bedroom in conditions described as ‘unfit for any animal’.
A jury of eight men and four women convicted Titford after being shown pictures during the trial at Mold Crown Court in North Wales of the ‘squalor and degradation’ Kaylea had been forced to endure.
Kaylea died after suffering inflammation and infection from ulceration, arising from obesity and immobility
The bedroom of Kaylea Titford. 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
The evidence showed how the teenager, who had been wheelchair-bound and dependent on others for her care, was left to lie in soiled clothing and on filthy bed linen and puppy training pads.
She died after suffering inflammation and infection from ulcerations caused by obesity and immobility.
Emergency service workers, who were called to the house on October 10, described feeling sick due to an ‘unbearable’ rotting smell in her room.
Alun Titford was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence
Her mother, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, 39, previously admitted the same charge
When her body was examined maggots were found which were thought to have been feeding on her body in the final days of her life.
Titford claimed at trial that Lloyd-Jones was responsible for Kaylea’s care, and when he was asked why he had let his daughter down so badly, the removals worker said: ‘I’m lazy.’
Kaylea attended Newtown High School, where she was described by staff as ‘funny and chatty’, but she did not return after the coronavirus lockdown in March 2020.
The couple are to be sentenced at Swansea Crown Court before High Court Judge Mr Justice Griffiths, whose sentencing remarks will be broadcast to the public on TV and online.
It will be the first hearing in Wales to be filmed since the law was changed to allow cameras into criminal courts for the first time last year.
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