Maggots feeding on body of morbidly obese teenager were 48 hours old, court told
Maggots feeding on the body of a 23-stone disabled teenager were at least 48 hours old when examined, an expert has told a trial.
The body of morbidly obese Kaylea Titford, 16, was found lying ‘amid soiled clothing and bed linen’ at her home in Wales in October 2020.
Her mum, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, 39, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence, but her dad Alun Titford, 45, denies the offence.
The prosecution has alleged she was living in conditions ‘unfit for any animal’.
On Tuesday, Mold Crown Court heard how conditions in the girl’s bedroom in Newtown, Powys, were ‘optimal’ for a colonisation of houseflies.
Forensic entomologist Amoret Whitaker examined some of the maggots and looked at photos of the room Kaylea was discovered in.
She said: ‘The fact they were so closely associated with the body and were shown inside folds of skin makes me believe they were feeding on the body itself.
‘They are attracted to wounds, for instance, such as bed ulcers.’
Dr Whitaker said she had estimated the temperature of the surroundings in order to try to age the larvae, as Titford listened sitting with his head down in the dock.
‘If the larvae were developing on the body whilst it was still alive, obviously the temperature would be much hotter because the human body temperature is quite warm’, she said.
‘So the estimate I’ve used in this particular case is based on larvae developing on a live human.’
She added: ‘My estimate was 48 hours as the minimum time that they had been feeding on the body and in the bedding.’
But the expert said it was possible that the larvae, seized at the post-mortem the morning after Kaylea was found dead, had been developing for longer than 48 hours.
Dr Whitaker told the court she examined fly papers from Kaylea’s room, one of which had at least 60 houseflies on and another which had at least 50.
She couldn’t say for sure whether the flies on the paper had developed in the room.
Meanwhile, clinical podiatrist David Blake told the court the images he had seen of Kaylea were ‘the worst I’ve seen in my career’.
He estimated the 16-year-old’s toenails had not been cut for six to 10 months.
A ‘chronic breakdown or ulceration’ of the heel of her foot could be seen, which would have ‘a strong pungent smell that in a clinical environment would fill the room’.
Mr Blake said: ‘I have seen a number of issues and I have treated people in vulnerable conditions but the images I saw were the worst I’ve seen in my career.’
Asked by Caroline Rees KC, prosecuting, how he would describe any apparent neglect, he replied: ‘Unacceptable.’
Jurors previously heard how Kaylea weighed 22st 13lb, with a body mass index of 70, when she died.
It’s claimed her death was a result of ‘inflammation and infection in extensive areas of ulceration arising from obesity and its complications, and immobility in a girl with spina bifida and hydrocephalus’.
Titford, of Colwyn, Newtown, denies manslaughter by gross negligence and an alternative count of causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
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