Friday 1 July 2022 09:42 AM Killer 'stepbrother' Craig Mulligan, 14, dances with Logan Mwangi in disturbing ... trends now
It's the sort of video that could be proudly passed around by any happy family - a little five-year-old dancing with his teenage brother to Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas Is You'.
But this apparently touching footage hides a dark secret. Just months after it was filmed, the older boy would go on to kill his younger sibling in one of the most disturbing murder cases in recent memory.
Craig Mulligan, 14, murdered his stepbrother Logan Mwangi then helped dump his body in a river 250 yards from his home in Bridgend, South Wales. He has now been unmasked for the first time after an anonymity order was lifted by a judge.
And it can now be revealed how social workers agreed he could move into the family's cramped flat just five days before the murder. The teenager moved in despite previously threatening to kill Logan.
In the latest deadly failure to protect children, Logan was tortured and left to die by Mulligan along with his stepfather, racist ex-convict John Cole, 40, and the 'defenceless' boy's mother, Angharad Williamson, 31.
The boy's killing has chilling echoes of the tragic deaths of 16-month-old Star Hobson and six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, who were all murdered after suffering months of systematic abuse at the hands of their wicked parents and repeatedly let down by agencies which missed chances to intervene.
A serious case review has now been launched into the tragedy by the local council, but MPs have now demanded Wales follow England and Scotland and set up an inquiry to examine the crisis in social care on a national level.
Meanwhile, there are calls for an overhaul of the social care system across the whole of the UK amid widespread outrage at yet another young life being lost.
Logan (left) and Mulligan (right) dance in a video posted to Instagram on December 11. Logan was found dead on July 31 last year
Craig Mulligan (left), who has been convicted of the murder of Logan Mwangi (right). The youth's identity can be revealed after the judge in the case lifted an anonymity order
The tragedy follows the recent deaths of two other youngsters who suffered similarly horrific neglect.
MPs at Westminster have this week been probing the lockdown murders of 16-month-old Star Hobson and Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, six, with council bosses admitting no social workers had been sacked over the tragedies.
Star Hobson, murdered September 22, 2020
Star Hobson was only 16 months old when she was killed at her home in Keighley, West Yorkshire.
Star was murdered by her mother Frankie Smith's girlfriend Savannah Brockhill after suffering months of abuse in her home during the Covid lockdown last year. Frankie Smith 20, was handed an eight-year sentence for allowing her daughter's death. This was extended to 12 years in March for being too lenient.
Brockhill, 28, was convicted of murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years. No appeal was made against her sentence. It was revealed that social services had missed five opportunities to stop her killers in the months before her death on September 22, 2020.
Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, murdered June 16, 2020
Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, aged six, was murdered by his cruel stepmother Emma Tustin in June. She was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 29 years and the boy's father Thomas Hughes was jailed for 21 years for manslaughter.
The boy had been seen by social workers just two months before his death, but they concluded there were no safeguarding concerns. In October 2019, Aileen Carabine, a special educational coordinator at Arthur's school, said Arthur 'deteriorated' that month.
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Both were killed by their parents' partners during the pandemic after social workers missed signs they were being abused.
Mark Drakeford, the Labour First Minister of Wales, has so far rejected calls for an independent review into children's social work following Logan's death.
However, Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds – herself a child protection social worker for more than 25 years –yesterday said there was 'no reason' not to follow the England's example.
Meanwhile, Welsh Conservative social services spokesman Gareth Davies told the BBC: 'I do not know why the Labour government in Cardiff Bay do not think there is a need for an independent review of children's services in Wales.
'The other three UK nations are conducting one right now and Wales has the worst rate for looked-after children.'
Welsh Deputy Minister for Social Services Julie Morgan has vowed to 'radically reform' social care following Logan's tragic death.
Mulligan's move into Logan's home – likened during the murder trial to 'putting a lit match in a powder keg' – was approved by the secretive family courts after Cole applied for guardianship of Mulligan.
Despite not being a blood relative, Mulligan idolised Cole and referred to him as 'dad'.
In chilling contrast, he would not refer to Logan as his brother, calling him only 'the five-year-old'.
Social work insiders told the Mail of their incredulity that Mulligan was allowed to live with Logan, who only weeks earlier had been taken off the child protection register.
Logan's mother, stepfather and Mulligan – who was described as 'pure evil' by a foster carer – were convicted of his murder.
And yesterday life sentences were imposed on Cole – said by the judge to have carried out the attack – as well as Mulligan, who she said joined in, and Williamson, who helped them stage a 'callous' cover-up.
Cole was sentenced to at least 29 years behind bars and Williamson 28 years. Mulligan was detained for a minimum of 15 years.
Amid horror over the previously hidden truth about how Mulligan's presence was approved by those meant to protect Logan, calls were last night made for Wales to follow England's example and instigate a nationwide inquiry into child protection failures.
Last night, disturbing footage of Mulligan's arrest laid bare his arrogant response to Logan's death, showing him chewing gum and apparently showing no emotion.
The baby-faced 13-year-old calmly lied to officers that when he and Cole were caught on CCTV carrying a black bag at 2.45am on July 31, it contained 'rubbish' from the back garden which they 'chucked' in the river.
In reality, the black bag contained Logan's body.
Even his foster carers were terrified of him: Teenager Craig Mulligan's involvement in the death of five-year-old Logan Mwangi should never have been allowed to happen, writes TOM RAWSTORNE
His name will go down in infamy alongside those of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, the two ten-year-olds jailed for killing James Bulger. It was a crime that saw them become the youngest children to be convicted of murder in modern British history.
At 13, Craig Mulligan was only slightly older when he joined in the attack that left poor Logan Mwangi dying in agony.
The youth's identity can be revealed today after the judge in the case lifted an anonymity order. But what can also be revealed for the first time is that his involvement in the death of the defenceless five-year-old could – and should – never have been allowed to happen.
Mulligan's behaviour had been raising red flags for years. Brought up in chaotic circumstances, he delighted in torturing animals and other children, his simmering aggression terrifying even adults. One foster carer described him as 'pure evil'.
He first came into contact with Logan when his own 'stepfather' John 'Jay' Cole started dating the little boy's mother, Angharad Williamson, in 2019. It wasn't long before he was accused of pushing the child down the stairs, fracturing his arm.
The photo shows Angharad Williamson and her fiance Jay Cole, the mother and stepfather of Logan Mwangi, aged five, who was found dead in the Ogmore
