The father of an obese teenager found dead at home has told a court he let his daughter down because he was lazy.
Disabled 16-year-old Kaylea Titford weighed 22 stone and 13 lbs, with a body mass index of 70, when she died in October 2020 at her home in Newtown, Powys, Wales, where she was found lying in soiled clothing and bed linen.
Being cross-examined at Mold Crown Court on Wednesday, her father Alun Titford accepted he breached his duty as a parent and did not keep her clean, make sure she was moving around, keep her bedroom clean or get her medical attention when she needed it.
Caroline Rees KC, prosecuting, said: “Why did you let your daughter down so badly?”
Titford, 45, replied: “I’m lazy.”
Asked if he “just couldn’t be bothered”, the removals worker replied: “Yeah, that’s right.”
He accepted he failed as much as Kaylea’s mother Sarah Lloyd-Jones, who has pleaded guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence.
Ms Rees said: “You’re as much to blame for Kaylea’s death as Sarah Lloyd-Jones is?”
Titford replied: “Yeah.”
The father-of-six told the court the family had takeaways four or five times a week.
Asked how mindful of Kaylea’s weight he was when ordering takeaways, he said: “I didn’t think about it.”
He accepted the teenager, who used a wheelchair, put on two or three stone during lockdown.
But he claimed Kaylea was not bed bound and he had seen her using her wheelchair in the house, although the court heard in police interviews he said he had not seen her use her wheelchair since lockdown in March 2020.
He said he did not know about bottles of urine found on the floor in Kaylea’s bedroom.
Asked what effort he made to keep her room clean, he said: “I didn’t make no effort.”
Titford told the court he would take his daughter, who had spina bifida, to medical appointments and help with her care but as she got older he became less involved.
He said: “I stepped back. I didn’t do as much for her.
“She was getting older and I just didn’t feel comfortable.”
He said Kaylea was looked after by Lloyd-Jones, who also worked as a carer.
He told the court: “I thought she was caring for her.”
The court heard night before her death he messaged his daughter just after 10.30pm and said: “If you have a bad chest stop screaming.”
He told the court Kaylea had a cold and he thought one of her siblings was in her room when she did not want them there.
He said he could not hear what was being said but could hear Kaylea screaming.
The next morning, he said, he was woken by Lloyd-Jones who was crying and told him Kaylea was dead so he went to check her.
He said: “I just touched her and I could tell.”
Titford, of Colwyn, Newtown, denies manslaughter by gross negligence and an alternative count of causing or allowing the death of a child.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article