The mother of a five-year-old boy found lifeless in a river knew his stepfather had subjected him to a brutal beating two days before he died – but did not tell police, a court heard.

Logan Mwangi was discovered in the River Ogmore in Pandy Park, Bridgend, South Wales, yards from his home in the village of Sarn, on 31 July last year.

His mother, Angharad Williamson, 30, stepfather John Cole, 40, and a 14-year-old boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, are on trial at Cardiff Crown Court accused of his murder.

Williamson previously told police Cole was a great dad and had never been violent, jurors heard.

She insisted she didn’t know how her son sustained catastrophic internal injuries – likened to those endured by victims of high speed crashes or falling from a height.

But in a fourth interview with detectives last year, she revealed how Cole punched Logan several times in the stomach and “sent him flying” two days before he died.

Cole also goaded the 14-year-old defendant into joining in, jurors heard.

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After punching the boy three or four times, Cole lifted his shirt up and said of a bruise “that’s a good one”, Williamson said.

She told detectives: “(Logan) wasn’t crying, he was just standing there and he took it, I was mortified I didn’t take him straight to hospital.”

Williamson said she thought Logan might have run away after the assault.

She claimed she checked him and he only suffered red marks after the attack.

When quizzed about why she had kept this information from police, Williamson said she was “terrified” of Cole, who was “SAS”, adding: “He’ll have me killed.”

“His parents were the founding members of the SAS, I could never leave him, he told me if I ever left him he would have me killed,” she said.

Jurors were read transcripts of Williamson’s police interviews in which she repeatedly insisted she found Logan’s room empty in the early hours of 31 July.

But Cole claims Williamson found the boy dead in bed and, after unsuccessfully performing CPR, they made the decision “to get him out of the house”.

Cole and the 14-year-old were seen on CCTV leaving the flat around 2.45am.

The footage showed him carrying something in his arms – which he later admitted was Logan’s lifeless body.

A light can be seen going on and off in the kitchen – proving Williamson was awake, prosecutors allege.

But she maintains she was asleep throughout the incident and the switch often got stuck.

She told police: “If I was awake I could have saved Logan, how many times do I have to tell you?”

The trial continues.

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