The Utterly horrific case of Kayla Titford

On the 10th of October 2020 emergency services received a call from a concerned grandmother in Newtown Wales she explained that she'd received a call from her son who was noticeably upset saying his daughter was unresponsive in bed. When the caller spoke to the son, he said he could not get her on the floor to do CPR as she was so big. The caller stayed on the line until paramedics arrived, what they found was the conditions that this young girl had been living in were in humane they were horrifying, the young girl was sat up in bed motionless with flies and maggots feasting on her open wounds she was sitting on soiled incontinence pads and there was bottled urine left unemptied dotted around the bedroom. The paramedics felt for a pulse but there was nothing. This is the utterly horrifying case of Kayleigh Titford.

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On the 10th of October 2020, Emergency Services received a call from a concerned grandmother in Newtown Wales. She explained that she had received a call from her son, who was noticeably upset, saying his 16-year-old daughter was unresponsive in bed. When the caller spoke to the son, he explained that he can't get her on the floor to perform CPR as she was too big. The caller stayed on the phone until the ambulance arrived. And paramedics, what they found, the conditions that this young girl was living in were inhumane. They were horrifying. The young girl was sat in bed, motionless, with flies and maggots feasting on her open wounds. She was lying on soiled incontinence pads, and there were bottles of urine left unempted, dotted around the bedrooms. Paramedics felt for a pulse, but there was nothing. This is the utterly horrifying case of Kaylee Titford. Hello again, everyone. Welcome to Unthinkable, a true crime podcast. My name is Lisa. And this case today, it's shocking. I remember it when it unfolded at the time, and it's hard to believe it's even real. What this poor girl went through in the last seven months of her life at home in her bedroom. Her parents failed her in every way imaginable. So let's get started. So Kaylee Tipford, she was born on the 27th of September 2004 in Newtown, Wales. Her parents, so her mum was Sarah Lloyd Jones and her dad was Alan Tipford. And Kaylee had five siblings. Now when Kaylee was born, she was diagnosed with spina bifida and she used a wheelchair. And despite her disability, Kayleigh was known to be fiercely independent. In fact, she wouldn't let anyone push her wheelchair or open doors for her. Everything she could do herself, she would do herself. Now Kaylee had no use of her legs at all, so she would get around in her wheelchair, and she also participated in wheelchair basketball. And she was good. She'd actually been signposted to a disability sports Wales Pathway Program for athletics to participate in the Paralympics. So she was good. So she attended Newtown High School and she was described as bubbly, chatty with a mischievous side. And her teachers they commented on her enthusiasm enthusiasm for sport. She just sounds like a wonderful, bright, happy child, doesn't she? Now from a young age, Kaylee did have problems with her weight. When she was around three, she started seeing specialists. Her dad would take her to these appointments, and her weight did stabilize for a time. But then she began to miss appointments, and she missed so many that eventually she was taken off the list. And this is her parents' fault. Kaylee can't get herself to these appointments, she's relying on her parents. Now that they aren't using these services for Kaylee's weight, her weight increased. And one of the teachers from her school later said that as Kaylee became bigger, she appeared uncomfortable in her wheelchair, her legs looked too tight, and that Kaylee would become frustrated and upset. And she was starting to lose that enthusiasm for sports. Now, again, this is her parents. She's eating what they're giving to her, which in this case seems to be a lot of takeaways. And so Kaylee is just getting bigger and bigger, and she she's getting too big for her wheelchair. Her wheelchair is how she gets around. Why would you not help help your child? She needs you. And they had services that would support them. But you know, they don't show up for the appointment, so eventually they get taken off. Um and she just gets bigger and bigger. And it's she either needs to lose the weight with the help of a specialist, or they at least need to get her a bigger wheelchair, but they don't. So when she doesn't have the use of a wheelchair, she she can't get around. Okay, so let's jump to March 2020. So this is the dreaded COVID lockdown. COVID lockdown, so the schools were closed. Um, children were having online lessons, and there were children like vulnerable children or at-risk children that could still attend school. They had key workers. Um, so key workers were school teachers for vulnerable children. Um, Kaylee was vulnerable, but she did not attend. Um, now by this time, she is restricted to her bed and she's reliant on her parents for everything. Um, her dad worked for a removal company and her mum worked as a carer. So Kaylee was left alone for large parts of the day. And the irony is that Kaylee's mother worked as a carer for vulnerable adults, and she was doing an MVQ level two in healthcare. So Kaylee, she used to be able to use her arms to get herself from her bed into her wheelchair, and then that's how she could get around, but she's now too big for her wheelchair, so there's no way of her getting around. This girl's literally trapped in her bed. And there are reports at this time that Kaylee's parents spent a thousand pounds on takeaways, so they're feeding her junk food, she's getting bigger and bigger, and now Kaylee is too big for her shower. So she can't use the shower, and she can't use the toilet because she can't get to it, and so she ends up being fitted with a catheter. It appears that since March 2020, up to her death in October, Kaylee hadn't had a shower at all or a wash of any kind. That's seven months. That's seven months she's been confined to that bed. Her hair hasn't been washed, it's matted. We know that if you're bedbound, you need to either have a special mattress to help with the pressure sores or to be repositioned regularly. But Kaylee, this didn't happen. So she did appear uh develop large pressure sores all over her body. One in particular on her ankle was so bad that it actually exposed the bone, and there was one on her leg that measured nine inches. Now Kaylee was sitting on incontinence pads, they were tucked into her clothes, they were tucked sort of between her legs, she was sitting on them, they were heavily soiled, there was bottles of urine piling up from her catheter, there was uneaten food laying around, um, just rotting food, there was rubbish, the whole room was cluttered, you know. There was dishes stacked, there was um one of those deep fry frying cooker things, one of those in there, filthy, and so all these things combined. What do you get? You get flies. There are flies all around her, landing on her, and of course, with flies come maggots, and there were maggots. Can you just picture this horrific scene? A 16-year-old girl who could have been a Paralympian, and she's confined to her bed, surrounded by filth and clutter. She's sitting in her own human waste with bottles of urine, rotting food, covered in bed sores and open wounds, covered in flies and maggots. It's just horrific. So Kaylee does exchange messages with her parents asking for help. One read to her mum, Please, can you take care of my leaking legs? And can you help get rid of the baby flies? They don't help her. Um, Kaylee's father said that he told her to move her legs because she kept getting sores and blisters. So this was a text message he sent to her, which said, Lift your legs or lose them. And Kaylee had written back, I don't care, I don't use them anyway. So, like you can see, she's lost that sparkle. One of Kaylee's older sisters had messaged her mum telling her to sort Kaylee's room out. It's disgusting, she said, and she comments on the bottles of yawring being left. And it was noted that there was fly tape on the ceiling in Kaylee's room, and one of them had almost a hundred dead flies on it. And this shows that they are absolutely aware of what's happening in that room. It's but it's not only that, it's the smell. The smell would have been overpowering. Urin, human waste, rotting food, infected pressure sores. The fact that Kaylee hadn't had a shower in seven months. On the 9th of October, Kaylee was in so much pain that she was screaming. She was screaming in agony, and her father sends her a message telling her to stop. He later said that she would scream when she wanted something or she wanted someone to get out of her room. So he didn't see a need to check on her. The following morning, Kaylee's father was woken by Sarah, Kaylee's mother, saying, I think she's dead. So he goes in and Kaylee sat up in bed. She's cold, her lips are blue. Kaylee's father calls his mum, who calls for an ambulance. The call handler calls Alan to see what's going on whilst waiting for the ambulance to arrive. She's telling Alan to get Kaylee on the floor to start doing CPR. But Alan says she's too big, I can't. Paramedics arrive and they are met with this scene. Paramedic Gareth Wynne Evans. He takes Kaylee's pulse, but there's nothing. He said he had to quickly step outside and take a breath because of the smell. He also noted that there was a hoist, but it clearly hadn't been used as there were cobwebs on it and it had been switched off at the mains. He looked around at the cluttered room. It had been used as a storage room. He spotted a half-eaten birthday cake, dishes piling up, boxes upon boxes, and of course the bottles of urine. Gareth explained Kaylee had no pulse and there's nothing more that he can do. He attached elect electric rods to her ankles to be sure that there wasn't a faint heartbeat, which there wasn't. Kayleigh was pronounced dead at 8 12 a.m. Gareth noted that the bed sheets were dirty and Kaylee was sitting on soiled incontinent pads. Now the police are called, this is a crime scene, and PC Liam Donovan, he arrives. Donovan he records the room on his body cam. Kaylee's body has been removed at this point, and this body cam footage is online. It's easy to find. So you can see what Kaylee was living in. Whereas she's spent the last seven months of her life. It's it's horrible. And there's other photos and things on the internet if you're curious to have a look. You can also find the call between Kaylee's father and the um the uh paramedics. Um yeah, it's not it's not great. So Kaylee's cause of death was inflammation and infection in extensive areas of ulceration arising from obesity and its complications. So Kaylee had become morbidly obese. She was 22 stone at the time of her death, and she's 16. She was in a horrific state. The maggots were found to have been feasting on her wounds. They were eating her. Her wounds were infected. It's just horrendous. At the trial, Alan Tipford denied being aware of the conditions Kayleigh was in because he worked long hours, and he said that he stepped away from Kaylee's care when she hit puberty. He said that he didn't check on her regularly because her mother Sarah cared for her, although later he did admit that he had been lazy and could have done more. Sarah was said to have developed severe depression and found that her job as a carer and caring for Kaylee had drained her and she couldn't keep up with Kaylee's care. Sarah Lloyd Jones pleaded guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence in December 2022, and Alan Tipford was found guilty of the same charge in January 2023. Now Alan was sentenced to seven years and six months, and Sarah Lloyd Jones was sentenced to six years. Now there was a public outcry over the sentences, and the Court of Appeal has renewed the sentences and increased them. So 10 years for Alan and 8 years for Sarah. So Kaylee was subjected to horrific neglect at the hands of her parents. This bright, young, happy, determined girl had her life come to an end like this in squalor. What she could have gone on to become if she'd been properly cared for, if her parents had used the services available to them. However, it's just a sad case. Kaylee spent the last seven months of her life living in utter squalor. There's no other word. And the um the paramedic um Gareth, he had said that he thought she had gangrene. He said that's that was the smell he could smell. And like, and you know, it wouldn't have just been confined to Kaylee's room, it would have been spreading around the whole house, wouldn't it? So oh, it's just horrific. And where sort of wounds become infected, they obviously smell as well. So you've got that, and then you've got everything else on top of it, like human ways. I oh, it's just horrific. Very sad story. Um, so yeah, so if you want to go on uh the internet and have a look at um the the videos and pictures and things, they are easy to find. Um, and I want to dedicate this episode to Kaylee Tipford. Let me know what you think, and I like to end by saying in a world where you can be anything, be kind. Take care.