A father jailed over the manslaughter of his daughter had texted her to stop screaming on the night she died alone in her bedroom.
Welsh teenager Kaylea Titford was 322lbs when she passed away in October 2020, just weeks after she turned 16. She had spina bifida, a spinal condition that meant she was not able to use her legs. She also had hydrocephalus, which results in a buildup of fluid in the brain.
Her father - 45-year-old Alun Titford from Newtown, Powys - was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison at Swansea Crown Court on Wednesday after a jury found him guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence
Kaylea's mother, 39-year-old Sarah Lloyd-Jones, had previously pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge and was jailed for six years.
Not long before Kaylea died, Alun heard her screaming but rather than check in on her, he sent her a message telling her to "stop".
Per The Mirror, Mr Justice Griffiths said Alun had "ignored the smell and the dirt and the flies and the chaos and the evidence of his own eyes and nose that she was not getting the care she needed."
He added: "I find it impossible to say that one parent is more to blame than the other. They were both equally responsible and they were both equally culpable."
The judge went on to say Kaylea could "see and smell her own filth" and the ordeal was "obvious to anyone who went into the room."
He added: "For a girl of her age and independent spirit this was a part terrible state to find herself in. In her last hours, the night before Kaylea's body was found cold and dead, her father heard her screaming.
"She had already turned her mobile phone off for the last time. Her father's reaction to the screaming was to text her telling her to stop twice.
"He did not go and see what the matter was or get whatever help she needed. She was left to die alone."
The teen was found lying in a filthy bed, surrounded by rubbish, with maggots "feeding on her body" and flies over her head, the court heard.
During sentencing on Wednesday, Mr Justice Griffiths referred to the couple's actions as "horrifying" and referred to it as a "case of sustained neglect, leading to the death of a completely dependent, bed-ridden, vulnerable, disabled child at the hands of her own parents," per The Guardian.
Sarah ignored a number of offers of assistance from health experts in the months before Kaylea died. When the new school year started in September 2020, she repeatedly made excuses as to why her daughter was absent from class.
Sarah and Alun's lack of care for their daughter's basic needs where nutrition and hygiene were concerned was such that it was deemed criminal behavior. "This was not a lapse on the part of the defendants. It was a long and sustained period of criminal negligence," the judge added.
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