Father guilty of manslaughter over obese daughter’s death in squalor
A father accused of killing his disabled daughter by allowing her to become morbidly obese has been found guilty of manslaughter.
Alun Titford admitted he heard his 16-year-old daughter Kaylea screaming the night before she died, adding that he let her down because he was “lazy.”
Giving evidence in his trial at Mold crown court, Titford, 45, said he did not think there was anything unusual about the screams coming from Kaylea’s downstairs bedroom in Powys, Mid Wales, on 9 October 2020.
A spokesman for Powys County Council said: “Following the conclusion of court proceedings, a concise child practice review is to be carried out and will involve all relevant agencies following a clear statutory framework.
“The local authority does not feel able to comment until this process has been completed.”
Titford was released on bail ahead of his sentencing hearing next month while the judge told jurors they would be able to contact support services, including Samaritans, following the trial.
The jury heard that shortly after 10.30pm that night, Titford texted 16-year-old Kaylea from his bedroom upstairs asking her to be quiet. “If you have a bad chest, stop screaming,” he wrote to her, and then: “Why u keep screeking [screeching]?”
He said Kaylea had a cold and he assumed it was “the same as always – someone was in her room she didn’t want to be there, or someone doing something she didn’t like”.
Disabled 16-year-old Kaylea Titford weighed 22 stone and 13 lbs, with a body mass index of 70, when she died in October 2020 at her home in Newtown, Powys, Wales, where the jury heard that maggots were discovered under her sore-covered body when she was found in “truly horrific circumstances.”
Titford accepted he breached his duty as a parent and did not keep her clean, make sure she was moving around, keep her bedroom clean or get her medical attention when she needed it.
Caroline Rees KC, prosecuting, said: “Why did you let your daughter down so badly?”
Titford, 45, replied: “I’m lazy.”
Asked if he “just couldn’t be bothered”, the removals worker replied: “Yeah, that’s right.”
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