The parents of a disabled adolescent who died morbidly obese after experiencing shocking and extended neglect and mistreatment were sentenced to prison for manslaughter in Newtown, Powys, Wales.
When Kaylea Titford passed away in October 2020, only a few weeks after turning 16, she weighed over 300 lbs. She was born with hydrocephalus, an accumulation of fluid in the brain, and spina bifida, a spine disorder that prevented her from using her legs.
The court heard that when she passed away, she was lying in a filthy bed, surrounded by trash, with maggots “eating on her flesh” and flies hovering above her head.
The parents’ disregard for Kaylea’s fundamental requirements, particularly her nourishment, and cleanliness, was so severe that it was considered to be murder. The judge said that the defendants did not commit a mistake in this, and criminal negligence occurred over a long time.
It’s the first case in the UK where parents were accused of murdering their child by failing to supervise their nutrition and care. Kaylea’s parents, Alun Titford, 45, and Sarah Lloyd-Jones, 40, ignored her calls for help and spent more than $1,200 on takeaway and fizzy beverages in the three months before her death. Her father’s response, when questioned why he let Kaylea down so badly was, “I’m lazy.” The court heard that in the months preceding Kaylea’s death, Lloyd-Jones turned down many offers of assistance from medical professionals.
Kaylea would ask and yell for help, but the court found out that they would only text her to tell her to stop talking. The teenage girl reportedly wrote her mother a slew of heartbreaking letters in which she begged for assistance cleaning her “leaking legs” and getting rid of flies swarming on her. Lloyd-Jones responded with a dismissive, “For f*** sake,” instead.
The jury found her father, Alun Titford, 45, guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence. He received a seven-and-a-half-year sentence. In December, her mother, 40-year-old Sarah Lloyd-Jones, entered a guilty plea to the same charge. She received a six-year sentence.
