- A disabled teenager died after her parents left her in a state "not fit for animals."
- Kaylea Titford, 16, a wheelchair user with spina bifida, had to urinate on the floor.
A disabled teenager died after her parents left her in a state "not fit for animals," according to a case a British court heard this week.
Emergency responders described the harrowing scene when 16-year-old Kaylea Titford's parents called them to the home. One paramedic said the stench in the teenager's bedroom was so intense that it made him "retch," ITV news reported.
Responders found Titford's body with flies and maggots on it, and her nails had not been cut for at least six months, according to the news report.
Titford had spina bifida, a congenital spinal condition, and used a wheelchair because she had minimal use of her legs. She died at age 16 in October 2020. At the time, she weighed 321 pounds, and ulcers covered her lower body.
A pathologist recorded Kaylea's cause 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," The Guardian reported.
Her father, Alun Titford, is on trial at Mold Crown Court in Wales for manslaughter by gross negligence. He has denied all charges.
Titford's mother, Sarah Jane Lloyd-Jones, pleaded guilty to the same charges in December 2022, the BBC reported.
The prosecutor, Caroline Rees KC, said that the teenager was living in conditions "not fit for animals" at the time of 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" on her urine-soaked floor to relieve herself.
The court heard that many takeaway-food cartons, a deep-fat fryer, and McDonald's packaging were some of the items amid the filth and debris of the teenager's bedroom.
Rees KC told the court that Alun 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 reported.