A man accused of killing his partner’s five-year-old son has admitted that dumping the boy’s body by a river was ‘disgusting’.
John Cole, 40, denies murdering little Logan Mwangi but admits perverting the course of justice by stuffing the boy into a Nike holdall after he died and leaving him on the bank of the River Ogmore in Bridgend, Wales, last July.
Logan was found dead in the water the following day with catastrophic injuries likened to victims of car crashes or a fall from height.
His mother, Angharad Williamson, 30, and a 14-year-old boy who cannot be identified for legal reasons are also on trial for murder at Cardiff Crown Court and deny the charge.
Jurors were told Logan was ‘treated like a prisoner’ in the week leading to his death and that Cole punched him in the stomach and told the teenager to ‘take him down’ if he flinched afterwards.
Appearing before jurors on Monday, Cole accused Williamson of shaking Logan on the night of his death but claims he had no idea how the boy died as he was asleep when it happened.
Barristers began Cole’s cross-examination by asking him about a comment he allegedly made to a prison officer after a family court hearing last year which was unrelated to the murder allegations.
He is said to have told the officer: ‘The thing is I didn’t kill Logan… I have a moral dilemma, do I go down for murder and protect [the youth].’
Peter Rouch QC, representing Angharad Williamson, asked him: ‘You weren’t protective of Logan, were you, when you dumped him by the river?’
CCTV footage previously played in court showed Cole carrying Logan’s body out of the flat towards the river at 2am, closely followed by the youth.
Cole replied: ‘I regret that since the moment I did it. It was disgusting and I deserve all I get for that.”
Asked how Logan died, Cole said: ‘I don’t know what happened. I have heard a lot of stuff recently which is really disturbing and I don’t know how to make any sense of it.
The 40-year-old, who claims he was unaware the youth was following him, added: ‘I have never blamed the youth and I’m not blaming him now and I never blamed Angharad. I don’t know what happened.’
Jurors were told a neighbour had made a comment two days earlier that ‘Baldy is going bananas’.
Mr Rouch suggested the comment referred to Cole losing his temper, asking him: ‘Did you speak to Logan in a loud and aggressive manner?’
Cole replied: ‘I shouted at Logan, yes. We both used to shout at Logan. I wasn’t aggressive to Logan.
‘When you had him in the hallway, did you say, “Why are you flinching, you’re always flinching?”
‘Did you say words to the effect of “You have got to stop him flinching when I’m around him otherwise social services will be concerned?”‘
Cole replied: ‘No.’ He went on to deny punching Logan twice in the stomach or being abusive towards him, and claimed the youth did not punch him either.
He told the jury he went to bed around midnight on the night of Logan’s death and left him alive with his mother.
Asked why he had not questioned Williamson over what happened when he discovered the boy had died, Cole replied: ‘I knew I didn’t kill Logan, so the answer I would get would be too horrific and I didn’t want to know – it would be the youth or Angharad.’
Williamson denies perverting the course of justice, having previously claimed to have put Logan to bed alive and to have woken up finding him missing.
The youth also denies perverting the course of justice. He previously claimed he believed Cole was carrying bags of rubbish to be fly-tipped in the river.
The trial continues.
from News – Metro https://ift.tt/Bls9buF
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