Kaylea Titford: ‘Revolting’ pictures reveal how obese girl, 16, died in ‘squalor and degradation’
Jurors have been shown pictures of the “revolting” bedroom where an obese teenager was found dead.
Kaylea Titford, 16, weighed 22st and 13Ibs, with a body mass index of 70, when she died in October 2020 at her home in Powys, Wales, where she was found lying in soiled clothing and bed linen.
Her father Alun Titford, 45, denies manslaughter by gross negligence and is standing trial at Mold Crown Court.
On Friday, the jury was shown photographs and body-worn footage of Kaylea’s living conditions, with the prosecution describing them as “squalor and degradation”.
The images – which the defence conceded were “revolting” and “horrific” – reveal how the disabled teenager, who had spina bifida and was wheelchair-bound, was forced to lie in soiled clothing and bed linen.
The mattress Kaylea slept on
The court was earlier told that police described an “unbearable” rotting smell and maggots and flies on her body.
Pictures released on Friday showed larvae and puparia on the teenager’s bedding and fly dirt on a hoist used to lift her.
The bedroom was also seen to be full of clutter and debris, including cooking equipment and piles of clothing.
The conditions were previously described by prosecutor Caroline Rees as “unfit for any animal”.
Larvae and puparia found in Kaylea’s bed clothes
Kaylea, who depended entirely on others for her care, was found lying on filthy “puppy pads” and had not been washed for weeks, jurors were told.
She had dirty and matted hair and ulcerated skin, including pressure sores on her legs.
Defending Alun Titford, David Elias KC told the jury to “divorce” themselves from the “graphic nature” of the images.
“The horror at the end of the case is not the benchmark necessarily for guilt or innocence.
“It is revolting, it is horrific, there is no dispute about it, but you have to look at how it got to that point.”
Fly dirt seen on the hoist used to lift Kaylea
Kaylea’s bedroom
Kaylea and her family were “let down” by health and social services, Mr Elias said in his closing speech.
“Not every family who is let down ends up in the situation we have seen, thank heavens, but it is important evidence, we submit, in the context of this defendant’s behaviour.”
Kaylea was discharged from physiotherapy in 2017 and a year later was discharged from a dietetics service because her mother, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, failed to make a new appointment.
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In April 2017, a social worker agreed with Ms Lloyd-Jones that there was no role for the team specialising in children with disabilities, the court heard.
Ms Lloyd-Jones, who has six children with Titford, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence, the jury were told.
She was responsible for most of Kaylea’s care when she reached puberty, with Titford stepping back because he wasn’t “comfortable”.
Kaylea Titford had spina bifada
Titford, a removal worker, worked up to 50 hours a week and 15 days straight before Kaylea died.
Mr Elias said: “Here is a defendant who was working throughout, who we say quite rightly because he was entitled to, because of everything that she had done so well, truly believed until the day Kaylea was found that Sarah Lloyd-Jones was doing the right thing, was giving the right treatment, and didn’t know that she wasn’t.”
Alun Titford pictured arriving at Mold Crown Court in Flintshire, North Wales
He said it was “reasonable” for Titford to believe his partner was looking after Kaylea and dealing with the danger of the pressure sores on her legs.
“It was Sarah who was dealing with that, and that’s not passing the buck, that’s what was happening.”
Titford, of Colwyn, Newtown in Powys, also denies an alternative count of causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial has been adjourned to Monday when Judge Martin Griffiths will sum up the case and the jury is expected to begin deliberating.
Footage of the moment 10-year-old Sara Sharif’s alleged killers were detained after police boarded their plane back to the UK has been played in court.
As they are approached by officers, Sara‘s stepmother Beinash Batool is heard saying: “I think you’re looking for us.”
Batool, 30, Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, 42, and uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are accused of carrying out a campaign of abuse against her culminating in her death at her family home in Surrey on 8 August last year.
The defendants, along with five of Sara’s siblings, aged between one and 13, flew to Pakistan the following day.
Sara’s body was found by police in a bunkbed on 10 August after Sharif called police from Pakistan to say he had beaten her “too much” for being “naughty”.
A murder investigation was launched involving agencies including Interpol and the National Crime Agency to locate the defendants.
They returned to the UK on a flight from Dubai to Gatwick Airport on 13 September.
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‘I beat her up too much’
The clips of officers’ body-worn video shown to the jury on Friday captured the moment police boarded the plane and detained the defendants at 7.42pm, seven minutes after touchdown.
After Batool addresses the officers, Sharif, who had been sitting next to her, is asked to follow them.
The three were then taken off the plane and arrested.
Pic: Surrey Police
A post-mortem examination established Sara had sustained extensive and significant injuries over a sustained period prior to her death.
The jury heard on Friday how concerns were raised by Sara’s school about bruising on her body in June 2022 and March 2023.
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Several items seized from Sara’s home were also reviewed by the court, including a leather belt which had full DNA samples at both ends for Sara, Sharif, and Malik.
A cricket bat was also found to have Sara’s DNA profile on it, along with the DNA samples of Sharif and Malik.
Neither item had a DNA trace of Batool.
The court also reviewed the defendants’ bank accounts – both joint and separate.
All three defendants have pleaded not guilty to murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
Six teenagers have been arrested after a 13-year-old girl was found with multiple stab wounds on a roadside near Hull.
Police said she was found around 6.50am on the A63 in Hessle with “life-threatening injuries” including “lacerations to her neck, abdomen, chest and back”.
Four boys and two girls – aged between 14 and 17 – were quickly arrested in a nearby wooded area and are being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder.
Members of the public came to the girl’s aid before emergency services arrived, Humberside Police said.
Detective Superintendent Simon Vickers said they “believe the attackers knew the victim” and the circumstances are still being investigated.
“The girl remains in hospital in critical condition and her family are being supported by officers at this difficult time,” he added.
The boys arrested are aged 14, 15, 16 and 17, and the girls 14 and 15.
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Cordons are in place around a wooded area off Ferriby High Road while investigations continue.
Police said they would have an increased presence in the area over the weekend and have asked anyone with information or video to get in touch, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously.
UK
Ex-soldier Daniel Khalife tells court it was a ‘foolish idea’ to have someone with his ‘skillset’ in prison
A former soldier has told a jury his escape from Wandsworth prison to avoid being held with sex offenders and terrorists showed his “skillset”.
Daniel Khalife, 23, who was being held accused of passing secrets to Iran said he was “never a real spy” but planned a fake defection to the state following his arrest after watching American television show Homeland.
He said he wanted to be moved to a high-security unit because he was getting unwanted attention from the sex offenders on the vulnerable prisoners wing and feared a move to Belmarsh prison because, as a British soldier, terrorists wanted to kill him.
Khalife said he first wanted to “make a show” of escaping, acting suspiciously and covering himself in soot from a food delivery lorry on 21 August last year, while he was working in the prison kitchen.
He was spotted and reported to security but was “pretty shocked” when nothing happened so decided to take the “full measure,” he told the jury.
A makeshift sling. Pic: Met Police
Talking about his escape for the first time at his Woolwich Crown Court trial, Khalife told how he fashioned a makeshift sling from kitchen trousers and carabiners used by inmates to keep their possessions safe from rats.
He attached it to the Bidfood lorry on 1 September last year, to see if it would be spotted by officers at Wandsworth or other prisons on the delivery route.
“I put the two carabiners and the makeshift rope underneath the lorry,” he said.
“When I had made the decision to actually leave the prison I was going to do it properly so I tested the security not just in Wandsworth
“Strangely, over the coming days, I could see it but it wasn’t spotted in Wandsworth or any other prison.”
Then on the morning of 6 September, Khalife said he concealed himself underneath the lorry, resting his back on the sling as the lorry was searched.
“They did normal checks around with torches but they didn’t find me. After that, a governor came to the tunnel and said, ‘Have you searched the vehicle?’
“I was facing upwards. There was action around the lorry.”
Daniel Khalife joined the Army aged 16
He said that when the vehicle stopped he “came out underneath the lorry and stayed in the prone position” until the lorry moved off.
Khalife, who joined the Army aged 16 and took up a post with the Royal Signals, based in Beacons barracks, Staffordshire, said he made no attempt to leave the country and had no intention to “run away” from the charges he was facing.
He was arrested three days later on the footpath of the Grand Union Canal in Northolt, west London, after a nationwide manhunt.
Asked why he had not handed himself in after his escape, Khalife said: “I was finally demonstrating what a foolish idea it was to have someone of my skillset in prison. What use was that to anyone?”
“I accept that I left the prison and didn’t have any permission to do so,” he said. “I accept absolutely that I shouldn’t have done what I did.”
Daniel Khalife
Inspired by Homeland
The court has heard Khalife initiated contact with Iranian intelligence officers after he was told he could not pass developed vetting because his mother was born in Iran.
Khalife told MI5 he wanted to be a “double agent” and he said in court he thought he would be “congratulated” but described his arrest as like a “punch in the face”.
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Wearing a blue checked shirt and chinos, he said police were “blinded at the prospect of a successful prosecution” but he did not think being in prison would be in “the public interest”.
“I didn’t do anything that harmed our national security. I wanted to put myself in a position where I could help my country,” he said.
“I believed I could continue my work actually located in the state – the state being Iran.”
Khalife said he took inspiration from watching Homeland, starring Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, in which Americans and terrorists go undercover, on Netflix.
“I had seen one of the characters in the programme had actually falsely defected to a particular country and utilised that position to further the national security interests of that character’s country,” he said.
“The country in question, Iran, thought it was real. She did it to further the interests of her own country.”
Khalife told jurors he is a “patriot”, adding: “I do love my country. All I wanted to do was help. I never wanted to do any harm, I never did do any harm.”
He added: “It is tragic it has come to this and I would do anything to go back to my career.”
Khalife, from Kingston, southwest London, denies a charge of committing an act prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state under the Official Secrets Act between 1 May 2019 and 6 January 2022.
He has also pleaded not guilty to a charge under the Terrorism Act of eliciting information about Armed Forces personnel on 2 August 2021, perpetrating a bomb hoax on or before 2 January 2023 and escaping from prison on 6 September last year.
The trial continues.
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