Father found guilty of killing daughter: he let her get fat and die

Kylie Titford, 16, was found dead under “truly appalling circumstances” weighing 146kg.

Father found guilty of killing his disabled daughter. Alan Titford, 45, faces jail after being found guilty of manslaughter following the death of his daughter Kylie.

The mother of the teenage girl, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, pleaded guilty in December to the same charges. She and Titford had six children and lived together in Newtown, Powys, Wales. The couple will be sentenced by the Crown Court of Swansea on March 1 to a punishment appropriate to the gravity of the case.

It is believed that this is the first prosecution of its kind in the UK, in which parents are accused of killing their child because they didn’t watch their diet.

By the time of her death (October 9 or 10, 2020), Kylie was “living in conditions unsuitable even for an animal, not to mention a 16-year-old girl whose life was completely dependent on others.” Kylie was born with hydrocephalus, also known as “dropsy of the brain”, and spinal problems. This meant that she could not walk. The child attended a regular school and used a wheelchair to get around and play “alternative sports”. She was so good at basketball that she even competed in scout competitions for potential Paralympians.

Prior to the first Covid19 lockdown in March 2020, Kylie was a student at Newtown High School. Those who have worked with her have described her as “extremely independent” and “wonderful, fun and outgoing” with a great sense of humor. Her health deteriorated over the next seven months as she was “cut off from the outside world” and never returned to school.

After the arrest, Titford told police that he believed Kylie hadn’t been out of bed since quarantine began. However, when testifying, he changed his story, stating that Kylie remained mobile until shortly before her death, she could get out of bed and move around the first floor of their house in her wheelchair.

The head of the family noted that last went into her room two weeks before her death to kiss her on her 16th birthdayclaiming that he did not notice anything unusual, such as an unpleasant smell coming from the bed.

The ambulance workers, called to the house and ascertaining the death of the girl, shuddered from the smell in her bedroom. They found maggots under her body with bedsores. The weight of the child was 146 kg. A fly trap hung from the ceiling, and a cobweb-covered corner was “infested with flies.”

Prosecutors said Kylie lived in conditions “unsuitable for any living creature.”

Caylee was 1.45 meters tall and had a body mass index of 70 when she died. Her toenails, which she couldn’t reach, hadn’t been trimmed for at least six months, and her armpits were black. She was 20 pounds heavier than intended for her wheelchair. The cause of her death was recorded as “inflammation and infection in extensive areas of wounds resulting from obesity and its complications, as well as the immobility of a girl with hydrocephalus and problems with the musculoskeletal system.”

Testifying during a three-week trial, Titford admitted that he “let down” Kylie and confirmed that he “cared for her in bad faith,” but pleaded not guilty to her murder.

A police statement said: “The circumstances of Kylie’s death were tragic and her parents will have to live with the role they played in this for the rest of their lives.”

Source link