Mum who murdered son, 5, before his body was dumped in river wants sentence cut

A mother who murdered her five-year-old son wants her case reviewed by the body which investigates potential miscarriages of justice.

Angharad Williamson was jailed for life in June 2022 for the murder of her son Logan Mwangi, alongside his stepfather John Cole and a teenager, Craig Mulligan, then 14.

Williamson must serve a minimum of 28 years.

On Wednesday, she appeared via video link at a pre-inquest hearing at Pontypridd Coroner's Court which set a date for Logan's inquest, and where the information about a possible appeal was revealed.

Logan's inquest has been set for November 2027 - more than six years after his murder.

The attack on the "defenceless" schoolboy, who weighed 3st 1lb (20kg), was "nothing short of horrifying".

Logan's body was found in the River Ogmore, near his home in Sarn, Bridgend county in July 2021.

Police officers found Logan partially submerged in the river in Pandy Park, just 250m from his home. He was wearing his dinosaur pyjama bottoms and a Spider-Man top.

His body was dumped like "fly-tipped rubbish".

During the trial, jurors had heard how Logan was treated like a prisoner in the days before his death.

Rejecting Williamson's version of events that Cole and Mulligan attacked Logan two days before his body was found and that she had run out of the house in an attempt to get help, Mrs Justice Jefford said: "That was made up after the event to protect yourself and shift the blame.

"You had an opportunity to protect your son from further injury and you did nothing.

"Whatever time the ferocious assault on Logan happened, he was for the most part of Friday injured or dying."

Talking about the cover-up, Jefford said what they did was "careful and calculated and not the product of panic".

"It is impossible to imagine the terror a five-year-old would feel suffering those horrific injuries inflicted upon him by those regarded as his family with the compliance of his mother."

The concealment of Logan's body in the river, was described as "heartless", "calculated and orchestrated".

Jefford told the trio they were "all responsible for Logan's death and all the anguish that has flowed from it".

"Because he was killed in his own home, it is not possible to be sure what has happened to him," she said.

She described the injuries Logan suffered as "the sort of injuries seen in abused children".

Logan, a previously "smiling, cheerful little boy", died after suffering a "brutal and sustained" attack at home, leaving him with 56 "catastrophic" injuries, including extensive bruising to the back of his head and tears in his liver and bowel.

Cole was told he would serve a minimum term of 29 years in prison while Mulligan, would serve at least 15 years. All three were convicted of murdering Logan in July 2021.

Mulligan - who was able to be publicly named after a judge lifted an anonymity order, external - is not the biological son of Cole but he raised him from the age of nine months and considered himself a father figure.

On Wednesday, Williamson was seen briefly on screen with dark hair and glasses as she listened to the hearing from HMP Downview Prison in Surrey, alongside a mental health support worker.

She did not speak at the hearing and Coroner David Regan said he understood she "wanted to observe".