Teenager murdered Logan Mwangi days after moving into his home

A teenager who murdered five-year-old Logan Mwangi moved into the family home five days before the killing, in a decision likened by prosecutors to throwing a lit match into a powder keg, it emerged yesterday.

- Steven Morris

Craig Mulligan, 14, was ordered to be detained for a minimum of 15 years yesterday while his stepfather, John Cole, and stepmother, Angharad Williamson, were jailed for a minimum of 29 and 28 years for Logan's murder.

After the three were sentenced at Cardiff crown court, the judge, Mrs Justice Jefford, ruled that it was in the public interest for Mulligan, who was 13 at the time of the murder, to be named.

Cole had brought up Mulligan as his own son since the boy was nine months old but they were separated for six months before the murder of Logan and the teenager had been in local authority care.

Foster parents who looked after Mulligan claimed they had warned a social worker he had threatened to kill Logan but allege their fears were brushed aside. A family court judge gave Cole parental responsibility for Mulligan on 26 July last year without knowing about the threats.

On 31 July Logan's dead body was found with the sort of injuries usually seen in people who have been involved in a road accident or a fall from a height.

Williamson, 31, Cole, 40, and Mulligan tried to escape justice by dumping the child's body in a river in the village of Sarn, south Wales, and calling police to report they feared he had been kidnapped.