HORRIFIC images have revealed the squalid home where a 16-year-old girl died after her weight ballooned to 23 stone.
Tragic Kaylea Titford, who had spina bifida and hydrocephalus, was found dead in her filthy bedroom covered in maggots.
Her father Alun Titford, 45, is accused of the manslaughter of the schoolgirl who was discovered lying in soiled clothing and bed linen on October 10, 2020.
The jury were shown harrowing evidence of the “squalor and degradation” that Kaylea lived in at the home in Newtown, Wales.
Images and body-cam footage documented the disabled teen’s dire living conditions in the bug-infested property.
Distressing pictures showed clutter littered across the unkempt rooms, while soiled clothing was dumped on the floor.
A bottle of urine and a catheter were also seen discarded, while each room had piles of junk.
Absorbent pads were strewn across the floor of the bathroom, while one of Kaylea’s wheelchairs had been abandoned in there.
The court heard the 22stone and 13lb schoolgirl had matted hair and had not been washed for “several weeks.”
When police arrived at the home, one officer was “almost sick” from the stench of unwashed faeces in her bathroom.
In a closing speech at Mold Crown Court on Friday, David Elias KC, defending Titford, urged jurors to “divorce” themselves from the “graphic nature” of the images.
He said: “The horror at the end of the case is not the benchmark, necessarily for guilt or innocence.
“It is revolting, it is horrific, there’s no dispute about it, but you have to look at how it got to that point, but more importantly, whether you are sure Alun Titford, leaving aside Sarah Lloyd-Jones because she accepts she was, is in any way criminally liable for the situation we know occurred.”
He said the jury had heard evidence that more support should have been provided by social services for wheelchair user Kaylea.
Mr Elias said: “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.”
He explained that the teen had been discharged from physiotherapy in 2017, before being released from a dietetics service the following year.
The court heard the latter was because Kaylea’s mother, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, did not make a new appointment.
Mr Elias said that a social worker agreed with the mum that there was no role for the children-with-disabilities team in April 2017.
He continued: “What happened, once all those services withdrew for various reasons, but also because of the input of mum, what happened to Kaylea’s weight?
“How difficult then did it become for those looking after her?”
The jury heard that Lloyd-Jones, who shares six children with Titford and worked as a carer from 2018, had pleaded guilty to gross negligence manslaughter.
Mr Elias said she had been responsible for most of Kaylea’s care after she reached puberty, as her father withdrew as he wasn’t “comfortable.”
He said it was “reasonable” for Titford to believe Lloyd-Jones was caring for their child appropriately and aware of the danger of pressure sores on her legs.
The defence barrister described the dad as a full-time removal worker who had worked up to 50 hours a week, as well as 15 days straight, in the lead up to Kaylea’s death.
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.”
Titford denies gross negligence manslaughter and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The case has been adjourned until Monday, when judge Mr Justice Martin Griffiths will sum up and the jury is expected to start deliberations.
