Sarah Jane Lloyd-Jones

The offence

What the court heard

She pleaded guilty to the gross negligence manslaughter of her 16-year-old daughter in Powys, Mid Wales, on 10 October 2020. SENTENCING REMARKS 1. Kaylea Titford made a success of her life. 2. She was funny, determined and fiercely independent. Her hydrocephalus was dealt with by an operation which meant she had no reduced brain function. Her physical disability from spina bifida left her without movement or much feeling in her legs, but she was an accomplished wheelchair user, who was competitive in national wheelchair sports. She went to a mainstream school. She had a learning assistant to help her with things in school she simply could not do herself. But she would not allow people so much as to push her wheelchair or open a door for her. Everything she could do for herself, she did. 3. But she died just after her 16th birthday. 4. You, Sarah Lloyd Jones, her mother - and you, Alun Titford, her father - caused her death by shocking and prolonged neglect over lockdown; which you by your guilty plea, Sarah Lloyd Jones, and a jury by a unanimous verdict, Alun Titford, have proved to be gross negligence manslaughter on your part. For those crimes I now pass sentence. 5. I will briefly summarise the facts of the case particularly relevant to sentence. My summing up to the jury in the case of Alun Titford set out the evidence more fully and the case has been opened today by the Crown. 6. Kaylea Titford was born with hydrocephalus and spina bifida in 2004. She was born with normal weight but by the time she was 3 her weight had risen to the heaviest 99.6th centile of relevant weight on a scale of 1 - 100. At 4 years old she started mainstream primary school and at 6 she was already good at physical activities and games in her wheelchair. At 11 or so she went on to mainstream secondary school. 7. Concerns about her weight led to a concerted effort by professionals to work with the family to improve her diet and stabilise her weight. Sarah Lloyd Jones did not attend these appointments after the first one but Alun Titford attended instead. For 2 years from 2011 there was success, for which the family was given credit. But in 2013, when she was 9 or 10, a number of years before Kaylea's death, the stabilisation of her weight came to an end and weight gain was an issue until she died. 8. There was a history of missed appointments. Some of these ended the provision of relevant services, because professionals took the view that there was no point in scheduling…

Aggravating and mitigating factors

Breach of trust

Around this case

• Swansea Crown Court
• Prosecuted by CPS Cymru-Wales
• Investigated by Dyfed-Powys Police