The murder of Logan Mwangi

0:01 Hello everybody and welcome back to Unthinkable, a True Crime Podcast. Thank you for joining me today. My name is Lisa. I hope you are all well. So the case I'm going to be covering today, it's an incredibly sad one, but it's infuriating at the same time. Logan, the little boy I'm going to talk about, suffered absolutely horrific abuse, torture, and neglect at the hands of his mother, stepfather, and stepbrother, the very people who should have protected him. And what's worse, he was placed on the child protection register.

0:36 So child protection services were aware that Logan was in danger, but nobody intervened. Nobody stepped in to save him, and there were opportunities. He was actually removed from the register shortly before he died, even though he had broken bones, burns, and 63 external injuries. He was let down by the agencies whose very job it is to protect him. This is the murder of Logan Mowanji. So let's talk about little Logan. So he was born on the 15th of March 2016 in Bridgeend to his mother, Ang Harold Williamson, and his father, Benjamin Mowanji.

1:19 Now Benjamin is of Kenyan descent. Logan's parents separate soon after Logan was born. His father moved back to his hometown of Brentwood in Essex, and Logan and his mother moved to South Wales, where Logan's maternal grandmother lived. Those who knew Logan described him as bright and bubbly. He liked superheroes. He enjoyed spending time with other children. And he is just the cutest little boy. And his family and friends say he had like a zest for life. Now Logan's mother, Ang Harrod, after she splits with Benjamin, she then marries a former soldier, Jordan Hunt, in August 2017.

2:00 But this relationship doesn't last and the couple split in 2019. Apparently, there was some violence there. A few months later, around Easter, Ang Harrod moves with Logan to a council flat in Bridge End. And one night, Aung Harrod is in the pub and she meets a man called John Cole. And the couple, they very quickly start a relationship. Now, John Cole, well, he's not a particularly pleasant fellow. He's a criminal. He's got a string of convictions, including burglary, assault, domestic violence towards former partners and their children.

2:39 And he's been done for blackmail and for intimidating a witness. And he's actually spent three years in prison. And Cole, he's outwardly racist, and he's a former member of the National Front. If you don't know the National Front, it's a far-right fascist political party in the UK. And they basically believed that only white people should live in the UK. So lovely folk. Now, Cole moves in with Ang Harrod very early in their relationship. And now we know Cole is openly racist, and little Logan is mixed race.

3:15 Cole has a really nasty jealous streak. And because Logan is in contact with his father, Cole thinks Ang Harrod is cheating on him. Even though Benjamin lives three and a half hours away in Essex, but nevertheless, Cole orders Ang Haran to stop all contact with Logan's father. And she agrees. She stops all contact with Benjamin. And Benjamin wants to be in his son's life, but Ang Harrod blocks any contact. Now Benjamin last saw his son's face-to-face in 2019. That was the last time he saw him. Cole also stops contact between Logan and his grandmother, Angara's own mother.

3:59 And abusers do this, don't they? Because they want to eliminate any support networks. So basically, nobody will see what they are doing. So they can get away with abusing. And Cole's victim is little Logan. So the abuse of Logan starts quickly. He calls Logan by racial slurs, he nicknames him Coco Pop, and he loses his temper with Logan for any reason he seems fit and starts hitting him around the head. And his mother, she does nothing to protect him. She joins in. So they are both violent towards Logan.

4:37 Now, before we go any further, I want to bring in John Cole's stepson, Craig Mullingham. He's 13. And Craig, well, he's a thug. He's described as having a desire for violence. He'd been brought up by Cole since he was nine months. He now lives with his mother. Craig is a violent child, he's a bully, he's extremely aggressive. In school, he's known for being very difficult to deal with. Craig regularly attends Thai boxing lessons, and he's only 13 at the time, but he's a big lad and he's strong. And with the Thai boxing, he knows how to fight.

5:17 Now Craig appears to follow in the footsteps of Cole, but later on in 2021, Craig actually gets taken into care, and this is because he gets violently assaulted by his mum. So he's got his stepdad who's incredibly violent, his mum, who is incredibly violent, and he is incredibly violent. So before this event, Craig is regularly in Logan's life because he comes to visit his stepfather, and he is so cruel to Logan. He is just this huge bullying thug that enjoys harming people, and he idolises Cole, who will do anything Cole asks.

6:02 So now we have three violent people: Logan's mother, John Cole, and Craig Mullingen. And they're all set on abusing Logan. Now on the 23rd of March 2020, this is when the country goes into lockdown. So now Paul Logan is locked up with these three appalling people. On the 16th of August, Logan is taken to hospital with a broken arm and he has some bruising on his face. So the hospital submit a referral to Children's Services Emergency Department. And this was because Anne Harrow had delayed taking Logan to hospital.

6:40 His mother said that she thought his arm was dislocated and they tried to put it back in.

6:48 So they're saying they tried to, they tried themselves to relocate Logan's arm, which that's incredibly painful anyway, let alone if you're someone who doesn't know what they're doing. Now, whilst in hospital during an assessment, 31 images were taken of other injuries on Logan, including a bruise on his chin, bruises on both cheeks, two bruises on his forehead, and bruising on the top of his ears. Now, police arrive at the hospital and Logan's mother says Logan broke his arm by falling down the stairs.

7:23 She says the other injuries Logan's done to himself. She said that he would headbang and he would pinch the top of his ears. And the police believe her. They stated they don't consider Logan to have any non-accidental injuries. Now Cole enjoyed subjecting Logan to army star punishments. He would force him to hold the press-up position until he cried. He made him stand outside in the cold in just his pajamas. And Anne Harrod, Cole, and Craig would have family takeaway nights where they had KFC, but Logan was forced to eat dry Wheatabicks, and Craig would taunt Logan about how good their food was.

8:08 Now, in June 2020, the first lockdown is lifted and Logan returns to school. His teachers are shocked when they see Logan. He's got dark circles under his eyes, he's lost so much weight, and he's got bruises. And Logan, so he has a stutter, and it had greatly improved with the help of the teachers, but now it was really problematic, and this is a sign, isn't it, of that something's going on? And the teachers are really concerned. However, the official child protection review found that the teachers had not formally reported their concerns.

8:43 I don't know why. I don't know why they didn't report anything. On the 22nd of January, Anne Karen calls the police and she says that Craig had admitted to pushing Logan down the stairs back in August when he was taken to hospital with a broken arm. And she tells them that she thinks that Logan is in danger. And unbelievably, no further action was taken. Now it's around this time when Craig gets violently assaulted by his mum. Remember, I said earlier, local authorities made an urgent application to court, and Craig is placed within the care of local authorities on January 2021.

9:26 So Craig's been removed from his mum and placed in care. And the reason he's placed in care rather than go and live with his stepdad is because of Craig admitting to pushing Logan down the stairs. So it's unsafe for Logan to have him there at this time. And given John Cold's violent criminal history, it's agreed that Craig is placed in a foster care. Now he goes to stay with foster carers Clive and Gillian Finch, and they've been fostering children for more than 40 years. They said they have never ended a foster placement early, but Clive said he was absolutely terrified of Milligan and that he feared for the safety of his family.

10:07 They said the team would make threats to kill them. He also stated that he talked about that he wanted to kill Logan. They said that he was obsessed with carrying out the real life purge. If you haven't seen the purge, um there's a few of them, but it's basically one night a year, um, like all the rules go, and you can go out and kill people and commit crime and all sorts of things, and you won't get punished for it. So this one night a year, you can basically go out and commit any crime you want, including horrible murders, and they're legal, so you won't get punished for them.

10:44 Um so yeah, so Craig's obsessed with this. Now in March 2021, Logan is finally placed on the at-risk register under the categories of risk of being physically harmed and emotionally abused, and this was due to concerns regarding his stepdad Cole's previous convictions of violence, and this was investigated after Craig admitted to pushing him down the stairs. So now Logan has a social worker who would undertake face-to-face and virtual meetings with him due to the COVID pandemic. On the 7th of March 2021, Anne Harrod called the doctor to say that Logan had burnt his neck on a hot tap in the bath.

11:24 She told the doctor that Logan was on the child protection register, and she said that she'd shared photos of Logan's burns with the social worker, and she was satisfied that this was an accident, but said as a precaution to send the photos to the GP just to be sure that the burn's okay. On the 12th of May, during a visit, Logan showed the social worker where his burn was and he said that he had burnt it on the tap in the bathroom. Now it later transpired that Logan had actually gotten the injury by his mum heating up a spoon and burning Logan with it.

12:00 So Logan's obviously been told what to say here, no doubt under threat. If he tells a social worker the truth, and we've seen this before, haven't we? Abused children often are too scared to speak up or are coached what to say. We saw this with Daniel Palker, where he was promised a chocolate bar if he didn't tell the truth about how he'd hurt his hands. And they were starving him, if you remember, so he wanted the chocolate bar. So anyway, after this, no further action is taken. So now on the 20th of May 2021, a conference is held to review Logan's case, and it's decided that Logan is no longer deemed to be at risk, and he is taken off the child protection register.

12:44 They downgrade Logan to a child in need rather than a child at risk. But Logan he doesn't look well. He's got injuries, he's lost weight, his stutter has come back, and he starts wetting himself. He actually wets himself at school. Now Logan's being kept off school quite a lot at this time, apparently due to COVID symptoms. For children who are being abused, school is often a sanctuary for them, isn't it? It's a place where they feel safe, where they get a meal, where they can play and be with their friends.

13:17 And to be a child, they are so innocent and they just want to learn and explore the world around them. But then Logan would return to the hell that he was living at home. Logan's school breaks for the summer holidays in July 2021. On the 20th of July, Logan tests positive for COVID and he's confined to a small room. There are no lights in this room, so it was dark, and they forced Logan to keep the curtains closed. And when they did decide that he could eat and they bought him food, they made him face the wall.

13:53 Now Logan starts showing self-harming behaviour, so he starts biting himself, and this is because he's traumatized. This is a five-year-old child. Now what happens next I really don't understand. But a few months earlier, on the 13th of May 2021, Anne Harrod and John Cole advised the court that they wished to take Craig out of foster care and permanently care of him at home. They wanted to adopt him. Unbelievably, despite Craig openly saying he wants to kill Logan, admitted to pushing him down the stairs.

14:30 The courts agree, and Craig, this violent bully, goes back to the family on the 26th of July 2021. I think with Craig, he's so destructive that local authorities don't know what to do with him. They struggle to find foster placements, and here is a family saying they want him, so they let him move back in. Now, this decision proves fatal for Logan. Just five days later, he would be dead. Now, when Craig moves in, he and John Cole subject Logan to many violent assaults. He has a broken collarbone that's left untreated.

15:13 Somewhere between the 29th and the 30th of July, an argument breaks out between John and Harold over a drink being spilled on the stereo. Now this escalates and it ends up with Logan being subjected to a horrific assault that proves fatal. John punched little Logan four or five times in the stomach. Craig then swept out his legs and slammed his head repeatedly onto the floor. John Cole is he's six foot three and he's punching a five-year-old little boy in the stomach. And Craig, this disgusting thug, is teaming up with his sorry excuse for a stepdad.

15:58 And where's the mum in this? She later said that she was screaming at them to stop, but she never called the police. And on the same day, Logan's social worker, Deborah Williams, she comes to the property to check on Logan, but she's denied entry. Now Craig actually tells her to F off and she leaves. She leaves without seeing or hearing Logan, the very child she's supposed to be checking in with. And sadly, this is the last chance that there is ever going to be for someone to intervene and help save Logan from these monsters.

16:37 On the 31st of July 2021, at 2.30 in the morning, John Cole is caught on CCTV and he's carrying something towards the river. There's a river that runs close to the family's home. Now Craig is with him. Cole later said in his interview that he was fly tipping and he was doing it at night so that he wouldn't be caught. But the police point out that in the bundle he's holding there's a little arm hanging down. It's Logan's body. Logan had died after that vicious final assault, and they dumped his little body in the river.

17:15 At 5 45 that morning, Ang Harold calls the police. She's claiming that she's woke up to find her son missing. Now this phone call, it's extremely over the top. She shouted Logan at the top of her voice. She shouts shouting, help me, where is my child? All whilst hyperventilating. And then she notices that her back gate is open. You can find the phone call, it's really easy to find. You can listen to it. It's just ridiculous. Some people say that she does sound like a distressed mother, but it's so over the top.

17:52 It's so over the top. She's screaming at the top of her voice. Oh, go go and listen to it. I did I did try to put it on here, but I still haven't figured that out yet. Now the call handler, she's doing her best to calm her down, and she asks her if there's anyone else in the property with her. And she says, Yes, my partner, Logan's stepdad, but virtual dad. And then she goes back to shouting Logan's name and breathing heavily and hysterically fake crying. Now the police and the paramedics are dispatched, and they find that little Logan's body soon after arriving, it's in the River Ogmore in Bridgeend.

18:30 He's just wearing his mismatched pajamas. It's unbelievable, isn't it? That a mother could and would allow that poor little boy to be left out in the cold alone, knowing what they've done to him. I can't make any sense of it in my head. And if you're thinking maybe she didn't know, and that Craig and John Cole had done it without her knowledge, and if you think this utterly ridiculous phone call is real Oh no no no When the CCTV catches uh Cole and Craig carrying Logan's body, it also captures Ang Harrod going into Logan's room, turning on the light, she opens and closes the curtains.

19:13 Now she's in Logan's room, so she knows he's not there. It turns out she's actually taking off Logan's blood soaked bedding and put it putting it in the wash. And the washing machine can be heard in the background on the police body cam. So paramedics rush Logan to the Prince of Wales Hospital in Bridgend, and it's confirmed that he is dead. Five-year-old Logan had 56 external injuries, bruises, cuts across his forehead, face, neck, arms, legs, stomach, and chest. He had the fractured collarbone.

19:51 But the internal injuries they really tell the story of what's happened to this poor boy. He had a large tear in his liver. He had tear and damage to his small bowel and extensive traumatic damage, bleeding and swelling on his brain. Logan died from severe blunt force trauma prior to his body being disposed of in the river. Ang Harrod, John Cole, and Craig Mulligan are all arrested on suspicion of murder. They initially denied responsibility, sticking to the story that Logan had disappeared. However, the court showed the CCTV footage and the evidence of the three trying to cover up the crime, and the evidence is damning.

20:37 Despite not guilty pleas, all three were convicted of murdering Logan and preventing the course of justice. Now John Cole, 40, he was given a minimum of 29 years. And Harold Williamson, 31, will serve a minimum of 28 years. And Craig, now aged 14, will serve at least 15 years. Fifteen years is not long enough for this violent thug, in my opinion. He'll be 29 when he gets out. Doesn't seem right, does it? Now Ang Harrod, she cried throughout sentencing and held her head down. Unsurprisedly, John Cole and Craig Mullingen showed no emotion.

21:20 Ang Harrod shouted at Cole as they were led away. She was shouting that he was a liar. Now Ben Moanji, Logan's father, he received the news of Logan's death when he was at work, and he actually collapsed and hit his head. When he found out Logan's mother had been arrested, he said he felt devastated that he wasn't there to protect him. He says that he has dreams of Logan. He says that Logan runs into his arm and he holds him tight, but then he slowly disappears. Ben wasn't even aware that his son had been placed on the child protection register.

21:56 Logan's school teachers paid tribute to Logan, saying Logan was a loving, sweet-natured boy who was always smiling. They said he was a bright, happy child who was caring, loving, and a pleasure to teach. Obviously, after this all came out, there was a huge public outcry. How has this happened again? Why are these children slipping through the net? Now public anger focused heavily on social services after it came out that many warnings and red flags had been missed. Logan's name being removed from the Child Protection Register just weeks before his death, and the courts agreeing to let Craig move back into the property, even though he had previously broke Logan's arm.

22:38 Now, a multi-agency review found critical safeguarding gaps, including an absence of one-to-one contact with Logan away from the home. Doctors at the hospital did not share information about the bruises found on Logan when he was taken in with his broken arm. Now, a Welsh Lib Dem leader at the time said lessons must be learned so it never happens again. But we hear this a lot, don't we, in these cases? Lessons learned. And I know social services are overworked and they're underfunded and understaffed.

23:12 But Logan's case was extreme. He had physical injuries. You'd only need to look at him to know something's not okay. Oh I know this is a tough one, but I really think it's important to keep sharing these stories. Keep them in the front of people's minds in the hope that it could help towards prevention. I want to dedicate this episode to that lovely little boy, Logan Moanji. Thank you everyone for joining me today. Do let me know what you think of this episode, and if you'd like to leave me a review, that would be very much appreciated.

23:46 And as ever, I like to end by saying in a world where you can be anything, be kind. Take care.