Kaylea Titford was found dead at her house in 2020 at the age of 16 and weighing more than 22 stone. According to the prosecution, the adolescent lived in conditions “unfit for any animal.”
The father of a crippled girl who died from extreme obesity was found guilty of gross neglect.
In October 2020, paramedics discovered 16-year-old Kaylea Titford dead in her house in Newtown, Wales. She weighed more than 22 stone.
The prosecution said the wheelchair-using boy with spina bifida lived in “unfit for any animal” conditions.
Sarah Lloyd-Jones, the mother of Kaylea, had already been guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence.
Alun Titford, her 45-year-old father, denied the same claim, telling the court that he “wasn’t a very good parent” and had nothing to do with Kayla’s care.
Teachers at Newtown High School, where 16-year-old Kaylea was a student, characterized her as “vivacious” and “fiercely independent.”
The court heard that she was once even considered for a Paralympic basketball squad.
However, according to the school’s principal, Kaylea did not return to class during the COVID lockdown. With her mother providing “various excuses” for her absence.
The jury at Mold Crown Court was informed that the last interaction between Kayla’s teachers and her parents occurred on October 8, 2020, the day before she was discovered dead.
A pathologist’s study concluded that Kaylea’s death was caused by “inflammation and infection in significant regions of ulceration resulting from obesity and associated consequences, as well as immobility in a kid with spina bifida and hydrocephalus.”
The jury was informed by attending paramedics that Kayla’s room was “filthy,” with multiple soiled incontinence pads on her mattress, on the floor, and wrapped around her legs.
Her bed was surrounded by “junk food containers” and disposable milk bottles containing pee.
Five nights a week, Alun Titford told investigators, his family would order takeout, including Chinese and Indian cuisine and kebabs.
The jury was told that when paramedics lifted Kaylee’s duvet, the room reeked of “rotting flesh.”
Gareth Evans, a paramedic, testified in court that the odor caused him to “vomit”. And that he believed it was caused by a “kind of putrification.”
He said that Kayla’s wheelchair was “piled high with pillows” and that her mechanical hoist. Which might assist her in getting out of bed, was “covered with cobwebs.”
Two police officers who were also present testified to the jury that they “felt physically nauseous” from the stench in Kayla’s room and observed “live maggots writhing” on her bedding.
“I didn’t want to witness what I saw,” officer David Wilkinson told the court. “It was a shocking circumstance to see someone in.”
