The three accused of Logan Mwangi’s murder have behaved “like rats in a bag”, prosecution says.
A five-year-old boy whose body was found in a river was “treated like rubbish in life, just like he was in death”, a court has heard.
The prosecution has been giving its closing speech as the Logan Mwangi trial at Cardiff Crown Court enters its final stages.
The little boy’s body was found in the River Ogmore last July.
Logan’s mother Angharad Williamson, his stepfather John Cole and a 14-year-old boy all deny his murder.
Caroline Rees QC, barrister for the prosecution, said that the court had heard Logan was a “smiling and cheerful” little boy and the prosecution suggested he was also “brave”.
“Behind the smile, he endured a harsh environment and was not treated with the love,” she told the jury.
“In the 10 days before he was discovered, he was being been kept like a prisoner in his small bedroom.
“What must he have thought about the way life was in those 10 days?”
Ms Rees said Logan was “dehumanised” by the defendants and “treated like rubbish in life, just like he was in death”, referring to his body being dumped in the River Ogmore.
She said the prosecution accepted that there was “no direct evidence” in relation to the attack on Logan, but there was a “raft of powerful circumstantial evidence from each defendant”.
Ms Rees said the jury had heard evidence that Ms Williamson and Mr Cole were “no strangers in working together to lie to protect themselves”.
She reminded the jury of evidence from Mr Cole about a burn to Logan’s neck that he said had been caused by Ms Williamson putting a hot tea spoon on her son.
In his evidence, Mr Cole had told the jury that the couple had agreed to tell social services that the burn had been caused by an accident with a hot tap, although Ms Williamson maintained this was the truth in her evidence.
‘Seriously deficient parents’
Ms Rees said both were “seriously deficient in their parenting of Logan”.
She described Ms Williamson as a “liar who will try any stunt to avoid her true personality being on display”, and who “had been exposed by the trial process as being a selfish women whose only protective interests are for herself”.
She said jurors should not allow evidence relating to the teenage defendant to “fly under the radar” because it had been read to the court and was unchallenged, saying the evidence suggested he was a “violent child, cruel and manipulative” who had a “fascination with death and killing”.
She said CCTV evidence in the case had “proved to be an important key to unlocking what happened behind the closed door” of the flat.
She said Mr Cole had “no choice” but to admit he moved Logan’s body once he saw the footage, but said that he only admitted “what the CCTV had forced him to admit” and had not been fully truthful.
She said the evidence also showed the teenager “knew full well what was going on” when he followed Mr Cole as he carried Logan’s body. She told the jury: “The camera doesn’t lie.”
Ms Rees said that “no defendant has told the police or you the truth about the events of that night”, but added that the CCTV footage showed there was “frantic activity consistent with an event having happened” at the flat.
She said the defendants had behaved “like rats in a bag, fighting each other til’ the very end”.
“One matter that is not an issue is that Logan died a result of an unlawful assault. Whoever killed Logan is here with us today,” she said.
On Tuesday, barristers for the three defendants will begin their closing speeches and the jury is expected to retire to consider verdicts after Easter.
Cole has admitted a charge of perverting the course of justice, which is a charge that both Ms Williamson and the 14-year-old deny.
The two adults are also charged with causing or allowing the death of a child, which they both deny.