The mother of a five-year-old boy found dumped in a river with catastrophic injuries sat around watching reality TV the night she was charged with his murder, a jury has been told.
Logan Mwangi, also known as Logan Williamson, was found in the River Ogmore in Pandy Park, Bridgend, on 31 July 2021, a few hundred metres from the flat he shared with his family.
He suffered more than 56 external injuries, as well as internal injuries commonly found in victims of high-speed car accidents.
His mother Angharad Williamson, 30, is on trial at Cardiff Crown Court charged with his murder.
Read more: Logan Mwangi’s injuries ‘consistent with child abuse’
Also on trial for murder is Logan’s stepfather John Cole, and a 14-year-old boy, who cannot legally be identified.
On Tuesday, Joanne Brooks, who was in prison with Williamson at HMP Eastwood Park between 14 September and 23 December 2021 said the defendant had “never shed a real tear” about Logan.
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Ms Brooks said Williamson had put on an elaborate show of emotion for prison staff on the day she was charged with murder, but dropped it when they were not looking.
“Prior to us being put in our rooms that night, Angie had collapsed to the floor with some kind of emotion,” she said.
The witness said she had a clear view into Williamson’s cell from her own cell window.
“I could look across to see how she was because she had just been charged with the murder of her child and she was sat on her bed watching Married At First Sight Australia,” Ms Brooks said.
“She was basically eating snacks and laughing at what was on the screen.”
Williamson had been placed on hourly checks, Ms Brooks said.
“From what I could see, if a prison officer was due to come and see her, wailing would begin and it would stop as abruptly as it had started when the prison officer walked away.”
She said Williamson would then get back on the bed and continue with whatever she had been watching.
Asked whether she had ever seen Williamson shed a genuine tear, Ms Brooks said: “I can categorically say I never saw her shed a real tear and that’s something that has stuck in my mind.”
She described Williamson singing and skipping around the prison and laughing and joking with people.
Ms Brooks said on one occasion Williamson had shown her a montage of photos of Logan.
“There was no emotion, if you were showing someone a picture of your child that has just died you show emotion, and there was just none,” she said.
The witness said that Williamson’s manner was a “weird kind of attention-seeking” and that she informed her, without being asked, that she was “the Bridgend baby’s mum”.
Ms Brooks said Williamson had given her three accounts of her son’s death – the first being that she had tried to get help for him, but she had been prevented from leaving her property by the teenage defendant.
Read more: Bridgend mother ‘washed his bloodied sheets’ during police visit
In another version of events, Ms Brooks said Williamson had told her Logan had fallen and hit his head so she had put him to bed and given him Calpol, and that he had “wandered off of his own accord” because the lock on the front door was broken.
In a third telling, Williamson claimed she did not know what had happened because she was in her room listening to loud music, the witness said.
It is alleged the three defendants were involved in murdering Logan before concocting a cover-up which included dumping his body in the river, phoning the police to falsely report him missing, and washing his bloodstained bed linen.
Williamson and the youth deny murder and perverting the course of justice. Cole denies murder but admits perverting the course of justice.
Cole and Williamson are also charged with causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
