Kaylea Titford: dad accused of letting obese daughter die admits he was ‘too lazy’ to care for her

A father accused of causing or allowing the death of his obese teenage daughter has admitted he was too “lazy” to care for her.

Disabled Kaylea Titford, 16, was found lying in soiled clothing and bed linen after she died at her home in Newton, Powys, Wales, in October 2020, weighing 22 stone and 13lbs, with a body mass index of 70.

Her father Alun Titford accepted he breached his duty as a parent and admitted he let his daughter down.

During cross examination at Mold Crown Court on Wednesday (1 February), the 45-year-old said Kaylea would scream "most days" if her siblings or parents went into her room and she did not want them there.

He said she had a cold the night before her death and he messaged his daughter just after 10.30pm to tell her to “stop screaming” if she had a bad chest.

He told the court he thought one of her siblings was in her room when she did not want them there, adding that he couldn’t hear what was being said but could hear his daughter screaming.

The next morning, he said he was woken by Kaylea’s mother Sara Lloyd-Jones, 39, who was crying and told him their daughter was dead so he went to check her. He said: “I just touched her and I could tell.”

‘Too lazy to care for her’

Mr Titford said he did not keep Kaylea or her bedroom clean, failed to make sure she moved around, and did not get her medical attention when she needed it.

Asked by prosecutor Caroline Rees KC why he let his daughter down so badly, he replied: “I’m lazy”. He was then asked if he “just couldn’t be bothered”, to which the removals worker agreed: “Yeah, that’s right.”

Ms Rees asked whether he was the best father he could have been to any of his six children, and he responded: "No. I’m just not very good."

Mr Titford accepted he failed as much as Lloyd-Jones, who has pleaded guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence. Ms Rees asked: “You’re as much to blame for Kaylea’s death as Sarah Lloyd-Jones is?”, and he replied: “Yeah.”

The father-of-six told the court the family had takeaways four or five times a week and said he “didn’t think” about Kaylea’s weight when ordering food.

He accepted that 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. However, the court heard in police interviews he said he had not seen her use her wheelchair since lockdown in March 2020.

Mr Titford also told the court he did not know about bottles of urine found on the floor in Kaylea’s bedroom, and when asked what effort he made to keep her room clean, he said: “I didn’t make no effort.”

Images were revealed of the “squalor and degradation” Kaylea lived in prior to her death. Her bedroom could be seen housing a soiled medical mattress, while waste was found on the floor of the bathroom.

He said he would take his daughter, who had spina bifida, to medical appointments and help with her care, but became less involved as she got older because he “didn’t feel comfortable”.

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 added that Kaylea was looked after by Lloyd-Jones, who also worked as a carer, and told the court: “I thought she was caring for her.”

Mr Titford, of Colwyn, Newtown, denies manslaughter by gross negligence and an alternative count of causing or allowing the death of a child.