Murder Behind Closed Doors

This episode features world-renowned body language expert Dr Cliff Lansley, director of the Emotional Intelligence Academy. For his online course on human behaviour and how to spot the signs of deception go to www.emotionintell.com/theprofiler

On 31 July 2021, five-year-old Logan Mwangi's body was found in the River Ogmore in South Wales, shortly after his mother, Angharad Williamson, reported him missing. In this episode, forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes examines how Logan was killed by Williamson, her partner John Cole, and Cole's teenage son Craig Mulligan, following a campaign of abuse rooted in Cole's racism towards his mixed-race stepson. Drawing on police bodycam and interview footage, and behavioural analysis from body language expert Dr Cliff Lansley, Kerry unpicks the calculated cover-up that followed Logan's death, and the catalogue of missed warning signs that preceded it.

Key psychological themes

This episode explores: child abuse and 'Cinderella Syndrome' • coercive control and complicity • deception detection and micro-expressions • racially motivated abuse • blame-shifting and the 'cutthroat defence' under interrogation • institutional failure in child protection

Contributors featured in this episode

• Kerry Daynes — Forensic psychologist, presenter, and author of Dark Side of the Mind and What Lies Buried.

• Dr Cliff Lansley — Body language expert and founder of the Emotional Intelligence Academy.

• Bronwen Weatherby — Journalist who covered the case for the Press Association.

• Hamish Auskerry — ITV Wales reporter.

• Leyla Hayes — ITV News journalist.

• Paul Barton — Former homicide detective.

What you'll learn in this episode

• Why body language expert Dr Cliff Lansley says Angharad Williamson's cries on police bodycam don't match genuine grief

• How a neighbour's security camera undid the family's story that they were all asleep when Logan disappeared

• Why detectives believe Logan was targeted by his stepfather John Cole because of his race, and how that hostility spread through the household

• How Cole, Mulligan and Williamson turned on one another once confronted with forensic evidence, in what detectives call a 'cutthroat defence'

• Why Logan's bloodstained bedsheets, quietly put through the wash the morning he died, became one of the case's most damning pieces of evidence

• What the post-mortem revealed about Logan's final hours, and why his injuries needn't have been fatal if his family had called for help

• Why Logan had been placed on the child protection register, then removed just a month before his death

Relevant links and further reading

• Kerry Daynes — Dark Side of the Mind (Endeavour, 2019)

• Kerry Daynes — What Lies Buried (Endeavour, 2021)

• Faking It: Tears of a Crime / Inside the Arrest — streaming on Discovery+

• Dr Cliff Lansley — Emotional Intelligence Academy

• Child protection support — NSPCC Helpline (0808 800 5000)

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Credits

• Presented by Kerry Daynes

• Produced by Shearwater Media

• Executive producers: Jeff Anderson and Steve Anderson

• Editing and Music: Rob Warner

Content note

This episode contains detailed and distressing descriptions of child abuse and murder. Listener discretion is strongly advised. If you're concerned about a child's welfare, contact the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 800 5000, or the police on 999 in an emergency.

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