News

Report shows Logan Mganwi’s death an avoidable tragedy

Published

3 years ago

November 24, 2022

A SAFEGUARDING review has found cross-agency failings contributed to the death of five-year-old Logan Mwangi at the hands of his mother, her partner, and a teenager living with the family.
A boy described as “smiling, cheerful, bubbly” had his life cut short through the sustained, brutal cruelty of those he lived with.
Logan’s mother and stepfather used Covid regulations as a shield behind which they hid their abuse of him.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES AND UNSHARED INFORMATION

In gruelling detail, the report by Cwm Taf Morgannwg Safeguarding Board sets out a series of missed opportunities by healthcare staff, Bridgend social services, and South Wales Police to share information that might have protected Logan from the violence which led to his death on July 31, 2021.
Logan died after suffering blunt force abdominal injury, traumatic injuries to his brain and ischaemic brain damage (usually associated with attempted asphyxiation).
After carrying his corpse to the side of the River Ogmore, his killers dumped his body.

SUSTAINED RACIST ABUSE

His mother, Angharad Williamson, 31, stepfather John Cole, 40, and stepbrother Craig Mulligan, 14, were all convicted of murder and received life sentences following a trial at Cardiff Crown Court earlier this year.
Logan, who was of mixed race, suffered particular abuse from Cole, a former member of the National Front with a lengthy criminal record for violent offences, including assaulting a child.
The report notes that Cole and Mulligan “held and expressed racist and discriminatory views that one would expect to have made life very hard for Logan within the family”.

A RECORD OF INJURIES

The year before his death, Logan attended Accident and Emergency, battered, bruised, and with a fracture to his upper right arm.
Despite the family already being on social services’ radar, police and social services decided no basis existed for further intervention with the family – partly because hospital staff did not share the full extent of Logan’s injuries with them.
Logan was found to have sustained “wider bruising and injuries”, including an injury near his genitals, bruises to his ankle, bruises to his forehead, bruising to the top of both ears, bruising behind one ear, bruises to both cheeks and a carpet bruise to his chin. The area around his broken shoulder was also extensively bruised.
Doctors never shared the details of the further injuries, identified after a review by a paediatric specialist, with Police or Social Services.

THEY NEVER LISTENED TO LOGAN

Those injuries’ details paint a disturbing picture of sustained violence against a defenceless child who could not rely on his mother to protect him from abuse.
The report notes that the relevant agencies never spoke directly to Logan about his injuries.
The report concludes: “Several injuries, even in isolation, should have triggered a referral.
“If the injuries were considered by health professionals to be non-accidental, there should have been clear considerations to the number of injuries and site on the body, parental supervision being afforded to Logan and if wider agencies’ support was required.
“This again should have triggered a child protection referral.”
The authorities never contacted Logan’s birth father about any of their concerns following an unsupported claim of domestic abuse against him made by Williamson.
The report finds that regardless of the claim – which was not backed by any evidence or record of complaints – Logan’s father should have been part of the decision-making process regarding his son’s care. Logan’s father was never told that his son was on the Child Protection Register or that he’d been removed from it.
And it’s not as if social services were unaware of Cole’s appalling history of violence or oblivious to signs that something was amiss within the family unit.
Social services repeatedly engaged with the family for months before Logan’s murder. They noted Cole’s controlling behaviour, unwillingness to have anyone speak with them but himself, and an unexpected deterioration in Logan’s stammer.
The day before Logan’s death, a social worker visited the family’s home about concerns relating to another child living with Logan, Williamson, Cole, and Mulligan.
She neither saw nor spoke to Logan because she was told he had tested positive for Covid-19.
Within 24 hours of that visit, Logan was dead – beaten to death – and his body was left by the riverside.

INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF WALES’S CHILD SOCIAL SERVICES “MUST HAPPEN”

Plaid’s South Wales West regional MS, Sioned Williams, said: “The report outlines the extent to which multiple agencies worked with Logan and his family in the years before his death.
“Many local and national recommendations have been made. I have no doubt that the specific recommendations made to the Welsh Government will be discussed within the Senedd as a matter of urgency.
Sioned Williams added: “The Welsh Government must ensure vital services are properly resourced and commission an independent review of children’s social work across Wales, as called for previously by Professor Donald Forrester and the British Association of Social Workers Cymru.”
The Welsh Government has previously refused to consider such a review, a fact referred to by Welsh Conservative Shadow Social Services Minister Gareth Davies.
Mr Davies said: “Not only do we see a reluctance to escalate Logan’s situation in the face of obvious evidence and agencies working in silos, not sharing information, but understaffed departments that prove concerns about the high dependency of agency workers leading to cases like this are vindicated.
“It is clear that in addition to Bridgend Council implementing the report’s recommendations, we need a Wales-wide review of children’s services which, sadly, Mark Drakeford continues to block despite Wales being the only UK nation not undertaking one and having the UK’s highest rate of looked-after children.”

Crime

Swansea man dies weeks after release from troubled HMP Parc: Investigation launched

Published

3 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Tom Sinclair

A SWANSEA man has died just weeks after being released from HMP Parc, the Bridgend prison now at the centre of a national crisis over inmate deaths and post-release failures.

Darren Thomas, aged 52, died on 13 November 2025 — less than a month after leaving custody. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) has confirmed an independent investigation into his death, which is currently listed as “in progress”.

Born on 9 April 1973, Mr Thomas had been under post-release supervision following a period at HMP/YOI Parc, the G4S-run prison that recorded seventeen deaths in custody in 2024 — the highest in the UK.

His last known legal appearance was at Swansea Crown Court in October 2024, where he stood trial accused of making a threatening phone call and two counts of criminal damage. During the hearing, reported by The Pembrokeshire Herald at the time, the court heard he made threats during a heated call on 5 October 2023.

Mr Thomas denied the allegations but was found guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to a custodial term, which led to his imprisonment at HMP Parc.

Parc: A prison in breakdown

HMP Parc has faced sustained criticism throughout 2024 and 2025. A damning unannounced inspection in January found:

Severe self-harm incidents up 190%
Violence against staff up 109%
Synthetic drugs “easily accessible” across wings
Overcrowding at 108% capacity

In the first three months of 2024 alone, ten men died at Parc — part of a wider cluster of twenty PPO-investigated deaths since 2022. Six occurred within three weeks, all linked to synthetic drug use.

Leaked staff messages in 2025 exposed a culture of indifference, including one officer writing: “Let’s push him to go tomorrow so we can drop him.”

Six G4S employees have been arrested since 2023 in connection with alleged assaults and misconduct.

The danger after release

Deaths shortly after release from custody are a growing national concern. Ministry of Justice data shows 620 people died while under community supervision in 2024–2025, with 62 deaths occurring within 14 days of release.

Short sentences — common at Parc — leave little time for effective rehabilitation or release planning. Homelessness, loss of drug tolerance and untreated mental-health conditions create a high-risk environment for those newly released.

The PPO investigates all such deaths to determine whether prisons or probation failed in their duties. Reports often take 6–12 months and can lead to recommendations.

A system at breaking point

The crisis at Parc reflects wider failures across UK prisons and probation. A July 2025 House of Lords report described the service as “not fit for purpose”. More than 500 people die in custody annually, with campaigners warning that private prisons such as Parc prioritise cost-cutting over care.

The PPO investigation into the death of Darren Thomas continues.

Crime

Woman stabbed partner in Haverfordwest before handing herself in

Published

4 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Court Reporter

A WOMAN who stabbed her partner during a drug-fuelled episode walked straight into Haverfordwest Police Station and told officers what she had done, Swansea Crown Court has heard.

Amy Woolston, 22, of Dartmouth Street in Milford Haven, arrived at the station at around 8:00pm on June 13 and said: “I stabbed my ex-partner earlier… he’s alright and he let me walk off,” prosecutor Tom Scapens told the court.

The pair had taken acid together earlier in the day, and Woolston claimed she believed she could feel “stab marks in her back” before the incident.

Police find victim with four wounds

Officers went to the victim’s home to check on him. He was not there at first, but returned shortly afterwards. He appeared sober and told police: “Just a couple of things,” before pointing to injuries on his back.

He had three stab or puncture wounds to his back and another to his bicep.

The victim said that when he arrived home from the shop, Woolston was acting “a bit shifty”. After asking if she was alright, she grabbed something from the windowsill — described as either a knife or a shard of glass — and stabbed him.

He told officers he had “had worse from her before”, did not support a prosecution, and refused to go to hospital.

Defendant has long history of violence

Woolston pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding. The court heard she had amassed 20 previous convictions from 10 court appearances, including assaults, battery, and offences against emergency workers.

Defending, Dyfed Thomas said Woolston had longstanding mental health problems and had been off medication prescribed for paranoid schizophrenia at the time.
“She’s had a difficult upbringing,” he added, saying she was remorseful and now compliant with treatment.

Woolston was jailed for 12 months, but the court heard she has already served the equivalent time on remand and will be released imminently on a 12-month licence.

News

BBC apologises to Herald’s editor for inaccurate story

Published

5 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Staff Writer

THE BBC has issued a formal apology and amended a six-year-old article written by BBC Wales Business Correspondent Huw Thomas after its Executive Complaints Unit ruled that the original headline and wording gave an “incorrect impression” that Herald editor Tom Sinclair was personally liable for tens of thousands of pounds in debt.

The 2019 report, originally headlined “Herald newspaper editor Tom Sinclair has £70,000 debts”, has now been changed.

The ECU found: “The wording of the article and its headline could have led readers to form the incorrect impression that the debt was Mr Sinclair’s personal responsibility… In that respect the article failed to meet the BBC’s standards of due accuracy.”

Mr Sinclair said: “I’m grateful to the ECU for the apology and for correcting the personal-liability impression that caused real harm for six years. However, the article still links the debts to ‘the group which publishes The Herald’ when in fact they related to printing companies that were dissolved two years before the Herald was founded in 2013. I have asked the BBC to add that final clarification so the record is completely accurate.”

A formal apology and correction of this kind from the BBC is extremely rare, especially for a story more than six years old.