Logan Mwangi: Who are Angharad Williamson and John Cole?

A man who murdered his five-year-old stepson was a known racist with a string of previous convictions.

John Cole was found guilty of the murder of Logan Mwangi, alongside the little boy's mother Angharad Williamson and a 14-year-old boy, on Thursday.

Cole, 40, and Williamson, 31, claimed they were excellent parents. But witnesses painted a different picture.

During and after the trial, the couple's lies have unravelled to reveal a dark past.

Logan's body was found in the River Ogmore, close to his home in Sarn, Bridgend county, in July 2021.

He died after suffering a "brutal and sustained" attack at home, leaving him with "catastrophic" injuries, which experts also said could have only been caused by a "brutal and sustained assault".

Following the trial, BBC Wales can reveal the racist past of the five-year-old's stepfather and how his mother went from private schoolgirl to murdering her own child.

Martial arts fan Cole, who grew up in Rugby, Warwickshire, told people he had served in the SAS.

But during his 20s he was associated with the National Front, a fascist political party, and was known to be "very racist".

He had claimed to have put his racist past behind him but those who knew him, including friend Jodie Symmonds, said he used racial slurs against his mixed race stepson.

Williamson and Cole were both named - but why is the 14-year-old's identity being protected?

It is through section 45 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act, which means no victim, witness or defendant under 18 can be named in court proceedings.

This order is the "default position with regards to the welfare of the child, even if it is a serious crime", said Cardiff University law lecturer Dr Julie Doughty.

She points to rare occasions it has been challenged by the press and lifted by judges - such as the case of 16-year-old schoolboy Will Cornick, from Leeds, who admitted murdering teacher Ann Maguire.

It has also been done recently in a case in Cardiff - with the judge lifting restrictions on the identity of Dionne Timms-Williams, who was 16 when she took part in a homophobic murder - after she was convicted.

"When he reaches 18, the order will expire and if the media are still interested, he can be identified," Dr Doughty added.

However, there are exceptions.

For example, the murderers of James Bulger have lifelong anonymity.

Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were 10 when they tortured and killed the toddler in Liverpool and while they were named at the time, Dr Doughty said a judge deemed they would need new identities on release because it was "such an extreme case and will never be forgotten".

Friends said Cole told them he did not like Logan and witnessed him making the young boy do press-ups to teach him a lesson, stand in the naughty corner for extensive periods of time and make him watch others eat takeaway while he was only given cereal.

He has a string of previous convictions, including robbery, blackmail, witness intimidation and three previous offences of perverting the course of justice, according to the PA news agency.

He was said to have encouraged the 14-year-old boy - who was also found guilty of Logan's murder, but cannot be named for legal reasons - to assault Logan using martial arts manoeuvres he had learned.

Williamson's claims of being a loving mother with the "perfect little family" were shattered as she was found guilty of murdering her own child.

The daughter of a stockbroker, she grew up in Essex with a twin brother and younger brother and attended a fee-paying primary school, according to the PA news agency.

But before she had even met Cole, she had already turned to a life of dishonesty and violence.

She was charged with two counts of theft after making unauthorised payments on her mother's credit card.

On another occasion, with a boyfriend, she stole her mother's car and was punished in court with a community order and unpaid work.

Shortly after that, Williamson met Benjamin Mwangi and by June 2015 the couple were expecting a child.

Logan was born in March 2016, but his parents' relationship soon failed.

Later that year she got together with Jordan Hunt, a soldier, and they married in August 2017.

The relationship turned violent and by January 2019 the marriage was over.

Months later, Williamson moved with Logan to a council flat in Bridgend and soon met John Cole in a local pub.

Despite Cole being in a relationship with someone else, Williamson fell pregnant.

During the trial, Williamson claimed the relationship changed when Logan's father resumed contact with his son.

Cole is said to have stopped Logan seeing his father - jealously believing Ben Mwangi was having an affair with Williamson.

After Logan's death, she told detectives she was scared of Cole because he had claimed to have served in the SAS.

Cole also said he was subject to an indeterminate sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) - designed to protect the public from serious offenders whose crimes did not merit a life sentence - and could "find her" wherever she went.

Williamson was described as loud, with a tendency to use foul language and switch moods easily.

Her mother Clare, who sat for most of the trial in the public gallery and for a time was seen reading Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club, said her daughter had been "dramatic" since she was a child.

Throughout most of the trial, Williamson sobbed from the dock and repeatedly called Cole a "liar", imploring him to "tell the truth" while giving evidence.

It was revealed she was an avid watcher of YouTube videos on blackhead removal and Dr Pimple Popper and had watched more than 300 clips between October 2019 and August 2021.

As a mother, to many she appeared loving, but with a tendency to be "overbearing" or "overprotective".

Others said they observed her shouting at her children, and at times seemed ambivalent to Cole's harsh treatment of Logan.

Speaking to Radio Wales Breakfast, child protection expert Jim Gamble, who is chief executive of the INEQE child safeguarding organisation, said he was "sickened listening to the evidence and delighted that people have been held to account".

But he added: "That won't bring Logan back."

"Everyone will be looking at their children this morning, thinking how could any human being, let alone a mother and stepfather, do this to a child?

"I think we need to be really careful that we don't knee-jerk to demonize social care, police, educators, health professional that may have been involved.

"We're talking about extremely manipulative parents - they disguise their compliance.

"I am confident that everybody involved will simply want these lessons to be learned.

"They're doing a very difficult job and they'll be sick to their stomachs about this."