Video of moment boy, 5, was found dead in river played to jury

A video of the moment a five-year-old boy was discovered dead in a river by a policewoman has been played to a jury at Cardiff Crown Court.

The clip, taken from the body-worn camera of South Wales Police’s police constable Lauren Keen, was warned by prosecutor Caroline Rees QC to be “moving” and “distressing in nature”.

In it, the officer runs towards the body of Logan Mwangi, also known as Logan Williamson, who was found lying in the River Ogmore on the outskirts of Pandy Park in Sarn, Bridgend just after 6am on July 31.

Pc Keen and special constable Peter Freeth had been deployed to search the park land after a 999 call was made to police by Logan’s mother Angharad Williamson.

Having spotted Logan’s body through an opening in a hedge at the corner of the park around 250 metres from the young boy’s home on Lower Llansantffraid, Pc Keen said she activated her body-worn camera before running down the muddy bank towards boulders which Logan lay beyond.

Pc Keen told the jury: “He (Logan) was laying on his right side.

“He was in an open foetal position and he was submerged under the water.

“I immediately went into the water, I took around three strides to get to where Logan was.

“I picked him up in my arms and walked back towards where special constable Freeth was waiting on the bank.

“I could see Logan had an injury to the left side of his head.

“His eyes were wide open, his body was stiff and his lips blue.

“I formed the opinion that Logan was deceased.”

Williamson is on trial for her son’s murder along with her partner John Cole and a 14-year-old boy.

Another clip of both officers trying to revive Logan was also played in court, however the video had been heavily blurred by investigators.

In the background, male voices can be heard shouting “Logan”.

Pc Keen said: “My immediate opinion was that Logan was unfortunately already deceased, but it wasn’t down to me to determine that was the case.

“So I just tried my best until paramedics arrived.”

He told the court that when he arrived he was directed to where Logan was lying and there were already three ambulance crew members performing CPR.

He said Logan had “pale and mottled skin” and the “he was obviously cyanosed, meaning he was blue in the skin”.

“He had a bruise above his left eye, the length of his eyebrow,” he said.

He said Logan’s temperature was taken and it read 20.1 degrees which made him “profoundly hypothermic”.

In his statement to police given in August 2021, around five weeks after Logan was found, he said it was the “lowest temperature I have ever seen in a patient in all my years as a paramedic”.

“Based on information from his mother which we received saying he was last seen around 10pm and his body temperature, the assumption I made at the time was that he could’ve been in the river for some hours,” he told the court.

Several medics recalled seeing Williamson “hysterically crying”, describing her as having “pinky purple hair” which was tied up and wearing a dressing gown and pyjama bottoms.

Later she was seen shouting: “Why won’t anybody tell me anything?”

She was also telling paramedic of 37 years Andrew Connelly that she had not seen her son since 9.45pm the night before when she “tucked him into bed”, and that she woke up to find the gate open and Logan missing.

Richard Hopkins, paramedic, said he last saw Williamson at the Prince of Wales Hospital where Logan was taken and that she began to scream as she entered the doors.

It is alleged that both Williamson’s 999 call to police that morning and her behaviour when emergency services arrived at Lower Llansantffraid were part of an act designed to cover-up her involvement in her son’s death.

As some of the evidence was read, the youth could be see over video link playing with a small object throwing it up and down in his hand.

The last witness to give evidence on Monday was Pc Ryan Matthews who attended the scene and searched the family’s flat.

Pc Matthews recalled Logan’s bedsheet had been removed and that his bedroom was slightly ajar, and the backdoor of the property was open.

He said: “I noticed either a tumble dryer or washing machine was on mid-cycle before I went into the garden.”

Ms Rees told the court last week how officers had seized Logan’s bedsheet from the appliances days after he was found in the river.

In further footage shown to the court, from Pc Matthews body worn camera, the officer can be seen approaching Cole and the youth, then 13 years old, in the park and asks them to go back to the house.

Cole can be seen in a black Marvel hoodie asking Pc Matthews “What’s going on?” and “Is he OK?”

The teenager can also be heard asking “Is he OK?” with Cole replying “I don’t know”.

The pair’s concern and search for Logan throughout the morning is also alleged to have been bogus and done with an aim to mislead the police.

All three are also accused perverting the course of justice, including disposing of Logan’s body in the river near Pandy Park like “fly-tipped rubbish”, removing his clothing, washing bloodstained bed linen, and making a false missing person report to police.

Williamson and the youth pleaded not guilty to both offences, while Cole denied murder but admitted perverting the course of justice.

Williamson and Cole were also charged with causing or allowing the death of a child, which they both denied.