The mother and grandmother of an 18-year-old left to “rot to death” in his own home have been found guilty of manslaughter.

Jordan Burling was found on an inflatable mattress wearing a soiled nappy and weighing less than six stone (38kg) at home in Leeds in June 2016.

He died shortly after from acute bronchopneumonia, caused as a result of malnutrition, immobility and infected bed-sores that were so deep they left bone exposed.

An expert said it was the worst case of malnutrition he had seen in 26 years’ experience, and likened Burling’s condition to that of a second world war concentration camp victim.

At Leeds crown court on Tuesday, Burling’s mother, Dawn Cranston, 45, was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence, along with his grandmother Denise Cranston, 70.

His sister, Abigail Burling, 25, lived nearby and often visited the home. She was found guilty of causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable person.

Nicholas Lumley QC, prosecuting, said the teenager “had been allowed to decay, to rot to death, by those closest to him, over a period of at least several weeks”.



He had not been to school since he was 12, the court heard. Teachers at his primary school remember him defecating on the floor and said he had head lice. He had not seen a dentist since 2009, when 16 of his teeth were treated, including four extractions.

“From the time Jordan was taken out of school, he became increasingly anonymous. Education and social services played little part in his life,” Lumley told jurors.

“He only really had contact with his immediate family. He may have been invisible to the authorities but not so to these defendants.”

Burling’s relatives told the court that he had been a healthy teenager. His grandmother said his health deteriorated about three months before his death on 30 June and that he refused to go to the doctor.



“He went to the toilet one day and said something had cracked in his leg. He then decided he wasn’t going to walk,” she told police.

She said they made a makeshift bed for him in the lounge of their Farnley home owing to his immobility and he had to wear adult nappies. The court heard she and her daughter tried to clean his bedsores with sanitary towels and salty water.

Burling’s mother said she would feed him “pizzas, spaghetti bolognese, ravioli, spare ribs, crisps, Haribo and all sorts of different things”. But she struggled to keep track of his diet and dental hygiene after she started working frequent night shifts in 2011, she told jurors. His weight had been up and down for a “few years”, she said.

When paramedics arrived to treat Burling on the day of his death, his mother told them he “had not been eating for a few weeks”.

Bridget Shepherd, who spent 20 minutes trying to revive the teenager, said he looked “very, very pale and very emaciated” and that his bone structure was clearly visible.

A series of witnesses claimed that the 18-year-old’s mother “did not seem bothered” as medics attempted to revive him with CPR, while his grandmother reportedly remained seated in a nearby armchair.

Dawn Cranston was heard telling a 999 operator shortly before her son’s death that his unresponsive state was a “blessing” as it meant she would not have to go to work that day.

PC Ben McNamara, who arrived at the home just hours after Burling’s death, claimed that the first thing Dawn Cranston asked him was how much the funeral would cost.

“I was surprised by everyone’s lack of emotion. It is a strange thing to say after he had just died,” he told the court.

A neighbour said the family was viewed as “strange and reclusive”. The court heard their home was regularly targeted by young people throwing eggs at windows and banging on the door over a period of several years.

Sandra Detchon, who lived nearby, said the family did not report the attacks to the police or the council and it was during this time, in 2006, that Denise Cranston’s husband took his own life.

Dawn Cranston said her father’s suicide in the room next door was one of a series of traumatic events in her life.

In 2002 she gave birth at home without telling anybody she was pregnant. While searching the house after Burling’s death, police found a rucksack which contained bags of “rancid-smelling liquid” and baby’s bones.

Before the trial, Cranston admitted endeavouring to conceal a birth after hiding the remains in a rucksack for about 14 years.

She told jurors that she “panicked” after giving birth alone in her bedroom after realising she was pregnant when she felt something “really heavy” in her body.



Following the verdicts on Tuesday, Gerry Wareham, from the Crown Prosecution Service Yorkshire and Humberside, said Burling’s death was “one of the most shocking cases” the team had dealt with.



Dawn and Denise Cranston will be sentenced on Thursday. Abigail Burling will be sentenced the same day. All three were granted bail until then.