A report into the murder of a five-year-old boy has identified what it believes may be “systemic” issues with safeguarding children, including a failure to report injuries months before his death.
Logan Mwangi was fatally attacked in his home in Llansantffraid, Sarn, Bridgend, before his body was left in the nearby River Ogmore in the early hours of July 31, last year.
A Child Practice Review (CPR) into the murder of five-year-old Logan Mwangi has been published. Logan was murdered by his mother, stepfather, and a 14-year-old boy in Bridged in Wales, on July 31 2021. His body was found dumped in the River Ogmore dumped, just 250m from his home, with injuries described by a judge as “nothing short of horrifying”.
Logan’s mother, Angharad Williamson, his stepfather, John Cole, and a teenage boy, Craig Mulligan, were convicted of murdering Logan Mwangi by a jury at Cardiff Crown Court in April.
Mulligan was not related to any of them, but Cole had raised him since he was nine months old and considered himself a father figure.
Today’s review, by Cwm Taf Morgannwg Safeguarding Board looked into the involvement of all professionals in Logan’s life and what can be improved in the future following another report in August 2021 that raised “serious concerns” about children’s services in Bridgend.
It found injuries observed by health practitioners on Logan, referred to in the report as ‘Child T’, were not shared with services that could have taken appropriate action to safeguard him.
Logan suffered 56 external cuts and bruises and “catastrophic” internal injuries.
Experts ruled that they could have only been caused by a “brutal and sustained assault” inflicted on Logan in the hours, or days, before his death.
The review also highlighted how the pandemic limited the family’s contact with agencies and impacted on the ability to provide “optimum child protection processes”.
The report said: “As a result of this extended child practice review, key learning has been identified.
“The review panel believes that these issues may be systemic, and not isolated instances of individual error or poor practice.”
A year before his death in August 2020, Logan was brought to hospital with an injury to his arm which turned out to be a broken arm and doctors made a referral to social services.
However, social services and police “agreed that the threshold to undertake child protection enquiries had not been met at that stage, on the basis that there was limited medical information”, the report states.
The report detailed how Cole was reportedly a former member of the National Front and would subject Logan, whose father is of British and Kenyan heritage, to racially derogatory remarks.
It states that police “agreed at that time he was not an appropriate person to solely care”.
In a further health assessment by a pediatric doctor, Logan was found to have sustained “wider bruising and injuries”, with 31 images taken of these.
Records document that he had a blue mark above his genitalia, two bruises to his ankle, two 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 report states: “There is no evidence that information about these injuries was shared with agencies outside of the Health Board.”
Williamson claimed Logan would bang his head, pinch himself and said the mark to his ears was from wearing a mask to protect from Covid-19.
No explanation was given to the mark above his genitalia.
The report added there were no records of a child protection referral being submitted in relation to these injuries, or wider concerns for Logan’s welfare but stated referrals should be been “triggered”.
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