The tragic death of Kaylea Titiford: Parents of disabled 322lb teen girl who died of horrifying neglect get 13 years in prison
POWYS, WALES: The parents of a 322 lbs adolescent who was allowed to die in her own filth during the Covid lockdown were today sentenced to more than 13 years in prison after a court heard how her persistent cries for help were disregarded by them.
Disabled Kaylea Titford, a spina bifida patient, was permitted by her parents to gain morbid amounts of weight throughout the pandemic and was later discovered dead sitting up in her "severely filthy" bed at home in Newtown, Powys, covered with flies and maggots. The 16-year-old's weight increased and her health deteriorated as a result of her parents leaving her alone in her modified home, according to her father Alun Titford, who will serve seven and a half years in prison, and mother Sarah Lloyd-Jones, who will serve six years.
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As per The Daily Mail, in the three months leading up to their daughter's death, Titford, 45, and Lloyd-Jones, 40, spent more than £1,000 on takeaways and carbonated beverages, yet neglected to keep Kaylea clean and disregarded her cries for assistance. When asked why he let Kaylea down so terribly, her father responded, "I'm lazy," and denied manslaughter by gross negligence. Kaylea would yell for help, but the court heard that he would only text her to order her to stop talking.
The adolescent reportedly sent her mother a string of heartbreaking letters in which she begged for assistance in cleaning her "leaking legs" and getting rid of "baby flies" that were settling on her. Lloyd-Jones said, "For f*** sake," instead.
The court heard that just two weeks before her death, Kaylea messaged Lloyd-Jones to beg for assistance in getting rid of insects in her room. When she said, "It's little baby ones landing on me", her mother replied, "They like you lol."
Mr. Justice Griffiths told Swansea Crown Court on February 1, "In her last hours, the night before Kaylea's body was found cold and dead, her father heard her screaming. She had already turned her mobile phone off for the last time. Her father's reaction to the screaming was to text her telling her to stop, twice. He did not go and see what the matter was or get whatever help she needed. She was left to die alone."
Mr. Judge Griffiths stated the couple had engaged in "shocking and prolonged neglect over lockdown" while imposing imprisonment on their daughter. "(Kaylea) would not allow people so much as to push her wheelchair or open a door for her. Everything she could do for herself, she did," the judge said. "But she died just after her 16th birthday. You, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, her mother, and you, Alun Titford, her father, caused her death by shocking and prolonged neglect over lockdown, which you, by your guilty plea, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, and the jury by a unanimous verdict, Alun Titford, have proved to be gross negligence manslaughter on your part."