- A disabled teenager has died after it is alleged her parents left her in a state "not fit for animals."
- Kaylea Titford, 16, a wheelchair user with spina bifida, was forced to urinate on the floor, a court heard.
- Her father, Alun Titford, is being tried for manslaughter by gross negligence. Her mother has pleaded guilty.
A disabled teenager has died after her parents left her in a state "not fit for animals," a British court heard this week.
Emergency responders described a harrowing scene when they were called to the home of Kaylea Titford, 16, by her parents. One paramedic said the stench in the teenager's bedroom was so intense that it made him "retch," ITV news reports.
Titford's body was found with flies and maggots on it, and her nails had not been cut for six months, according to the news report.
Titford had spina bifida, a congenital spinal condition, and was a wheelchair user with minimal use of her legs. She died aged 16 in October 2020. At the time, she weighed 321 pounds, and ulcers covered her lower body.
The court heard that a pathologist recorded Kaylea's case of death as "inflammation and infection in extensive areas of ulceration arising from obesity and its complications, and immobility in a girl with spina bifida and hydrocephalus," per The Guardian.
Her father, Alun Titford, is being tried at Mold Crown Court in Wales for manslaughter by gross negligence. He denies all charges.
Titford's mother, Sarah Jane Lloyd-Jones, pleaded guilty to the same charge in December 2022, per the BBC.
The prosecutor, Caroline Rees KC, said that the teenager was living in conditions "not fit for animals" at her death and described how the teenager had to urinate on the floor.
The prosecutor said that at the time of her death in October 2020, Kaylea was "living in conditions not fit for animals" and was forced to use "puppy pads" to go to the toilet on her urine-soaked floor.
Amid the filth and debris of the teenager's bedroom, there were numerous takeaway food cartons, a deep fat fryer, and packaging from McDonald's, the court heard.
Rees KC told the court that Alan Titford "lived in the same house as Kaylea during the period in which she lived in that degrading condition, and he did absolutely nothing about it," ITV news reports.