A mother and father who killed their morbidly obese daughter with “shocking and prolonged lockdown neglect” have been jailed after a judge said they had no remorse.
Kaylea Titford, 16, was found in conditions described as “unfit for any animal”, with soiled clothes and bedding, after her death at the family home in Newtown, Powys, in October 2020.
Sarah Lloyd-Jones, 40, was jailed for six years, while Alun Titford, 45, said he would spend seven years and six months behind bars.
Lloyd-Jones became “progressively broken” and unable to cope during the Covid-19 pandemic, her lawyer told Swansea Crown Court on Wednesday.
Sentencing both the teenager’s parents, High Court judge Mr Justice Griffiths said he accepted “the lockdown created unusual circumstances”.
However, Mr Justice Griffiths said “none of the defendants were cut off from the outside world” and that Sarah Lloyd-Jones and Alun Titford could help care for their daughter if they asked.
He also said none of the defendants had “shown remorse that should be considered a significant mitigation.”
The judge added: “Alan Titford pleaded not guilty and even the author of the pre-sentence petition blamed his partner and even his daughter.
“Sarah Lloyd-Jones pleaded guilty and will take credit for that. But Dr Tizzard’s report and the pre-sentence report show she is still trying to shift blame elsewhere and minimize her own responsibility.”
The 16-year-old weighed 22lb 13lbs, with a BMI of 70, at the time of her death.
It was the first sentencing hearing in Wales to be filmed since the law was changed to allow cameras in crown courts last year.
Lloyd-Jones had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter, while Titford had been convicted of the same offense at trial.
His trial heard that Kaylea, who had spina bifida and used a wheelchair, died after an ulcer became inflamed and infected, caused by obesity and immobility.
Emergency workers, who were called to the home after she was found on October 10, described feeling sick because of a “rotting” smell in her room.
After her death, maggots believed to have been feeding on her body were found, the jury was told.
The court heard her sheets were soiled and she was lying on a row of puppy toilet training pads.
Her room was said to be dirty and untidy, with bottles of urine and a deep fryer dripping with grease on the side, as well as a full cake in a box.
Kaylea had attended Newtown High School, where she was described as “funny and chatty” by staff, but did not return after the coronavirus lockdown in March 2020.
Asked during his deposition why he had let his daughter down so badly, the removal worker said: “I’m lazy.”
Titford, who had six children with Lloyd-Jones, said the family would order takeaways four or five nights a week and thought Kaylea had put on two or three stone since March.
The prosecution claimed that Kaylea had not used her wheelchair, which became too small for her, since the lockdown began.
Caroline Rees KC, prosecuting, asked Titford: “He hadn’t got out of bed, had he?”
However, he claimed to have seen her in the kitchen of the house in her wheelchair during this time, despite telling police in interview that he had not seen her from the bed.
The court heard that Kaylea had been discharged from physiotherapy and dietetics services in the years before her death and was last seen by a social worker at home in 2017.
Titford claimed Lloyd-Jones, who was a community care worker, was responsible for Kaylea’s care.
She said he took her to medical appointments and cared for her, but backed off when she hit puberty as she didn’t feel “comfortable”.
On cross-examination he accepted that he was as much to blame for Kaylea’s death as her mother.