Times caption: Jordan Burling looked like a concentration camp victim when he was found in a house in Leeds
A piece in yesterday’s Times online, emphases ours:
The mother and grandmother of a malnourished teenager who died after being left to “rot to death” have been found guilty of his manslaughter.
Dawn Cranston, 45, and Denise Cranston, 70, were responsible for the care of Jordan Burling, 18, who was found lying on a filthy inflatable mattress and covered in pressure sores. He weighed less than six stone and was in a soiled nappy when paramedics discovered him in the family home in June 2016.
The three defendants looked ahead and appeared emotionless as the verdicts were read out at Leeds crown court. They will be sentenced later.
The teenager died from malnutrition, immobility and infected sores. His body was likened by a dietician to someone who had been held in a Second World War concentration camps.
Today jurors also found Jordan’s sister, Abigail Burling, 25, guilty of an alternative charge of causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable person. She was found not guilty of manslaughter.
During the four-week trial, Nicholas Lumley, QC, for the prosecution, told the court: “The fault lies with each of the accused. What met the eyes of the paramedics was a shocking and disturbing scene.
“Jordan was lying, utterly helpless, on an inflatable mattress in a cluttered living room. He was little more than skin and bones, he weighed 37kg, less than six stones. He wore a soiled nappy under some pyjamas.” Jordan’s heart had stopped and he died in the room, Mr Lumley told the jury.
“For reasons which may never be understood, Jordan had been allowed to decay, to rot to death, by those closest to him for at least several weeks,” he added. “There was no other reason for his death, no natural or other illness, apart from the conditions created for him by the accused.”
There were no apparent illnesses which led to his deterioration in health and eventual death. Paramedics made the discovery when they were called to the property Farnley, Leeds.
Police officers also found the remains of a full-term newborn baby boy who had been stuffed into a rucksack at the property during the investigation into Jordan’s death. Dawn Cranston already admitted to concealing the birth of a child by secretly disposing of a body.
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