Mother shouted ‘What have you done with my son?’ after his murder, trial is told

Logan Mwangi was found dead in a river in Bridgend on July 31 2021.

A sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Angharad Williamson, 30, crying in the dock (Elizabeth Cook/PA) (PA Wire)

A mother who is accused of murdering her five-year-old son was heard – on the morning his body was discovered in a nearby river – screaming: “What have you done with my son?”

Logan Mwangi, also known as Logan Williamson, was found dead in the River Ogmore in Pandy Park, Bridgend, on July 31 2021.

Found by police officers around 250 metres from the flat he shared with his family in Lower Llansantffraid, Sarn, the boy is believed to have suffered more than 55 injuries.

Logan’s mother Angharad Williamson, 30, step-father John Cole, and a 14-year-old boy, who cannot legally be identified, are on trial for his murder at Cardiff Crown Court.

Witness Paula Heath told the jury on Friday she was staying with her partner Paul Dodd when she was woken up – at about 5am on the day Logan’s body was found – to the sound of a man and woman “bickering”.

She said she then heard the woman yelling outside: “What have you done to my son? Where is my son? I want my son.”

She said a male voice shouted in reply: “I have done nothing with your son.”

Ms Heath told the court the woman sounded “hysterical”.

“The only way you could describe it was sheer panic,” she said.

“She was shouting, ‘Logan, Logan,’ and ‘The back door’s open, he’s got no shoes on, he’s got no socks on’.”

Later, Ms Heath said she saw a woman, now known to be Williamson, run towards a police officer who was stood on the nearby footbridge that crossed from Lower Llansantffraid into the park.

She said she was in her nightie and bare feet and shouted: “He’s my son. You’re telling me nothing.”

The jury has been told Williamson’s behaviour, including making a 999 call to police to report Logan missing, was part of a plan concocted by the three defendants to cover up their role in his death.

Williamson and the youth deny committing murder and perverting the course of justice. Cole denies murder but admits perverting the course of justice.

Williamson claims to have put Logan to bed alive the night before his body’s was found – and to have awoken to find him missing.

CCTV footage of Cole – accompanied by the youth – carrying Logan’s body to the river at around 2am has already been shown to the jury.

The jury has also seen videos – captured at around the same time – showing the light in Logan’s bedroom being switched on and off and his curtains being opened and closed.

This proves Williamson was awake at the time and aware of what was happening to her son, the prosecution say.

Williamson’s close friend Rhiannon Hales told the court Logan and her daughter were “best friends”.

Both families had known each other for around two-and-a-half years, with the women known to each other’s children as “auntie”.

Describing Logan, Ms Hales said: “He was amazing. He had the best little smile.

“He was always happy and smiling – a typical mummies boy. He loved his mum.”

Ms Hales told the jury Williamson and Cole had a stricter parenting style than her but there was “nothing to suggest anything other than a strict parent”.

Ms Hales said the little boy was “quieter” and “less playful” around Cole, who he called his dad.

She said Logan told her he was “proud of his dad”.

Last week, the court was told Cole bullied Logan, including making him do push-ups as a form of punishment and withholding food from him.

Another witness said he saw Logan being made to stand outside bare-footed and stare at the wall for half an hour as a form of punishment.

On Friday, next door neighbour Fred Witchell said he would often hear shouting coming from the flat, which he said was mostly directed at the children.

Asked about the tone of the shouting, Mr Witchell said it was “aggressive and nasty” and “not nice at all”.

He said he heard “a lot of swearing and foul language” and added: “It varied a lot, but things like, ‘You stupid bastard’.”

The trial continues.