A string of agencies made serious mistakes in the way they cared for a vulnerable 17-year-old girl who was strangled by her abusive older ex-partner and her body hidden in an old churchyard grave.
Jayden Parkinson was murdered by Ben Blakeley, 22, a former bin-man, drug user and petty criminal, the day after she told him she was expecting his child.
A joint domestic homicide and serious case review concluded on Wednesday that there were particular failures in the way Jayden was protected by Oxfordshire children’s social care in the months leading up to her death.
Also criticised in the report was a lack of information shared about Blakeley by various agencies and failings were also identified in relation to Thames Valley police’s response when the teenager went missing. The review says it was several days before the seriousness of the risk to her was properly recognised and she was classified as being at high risk by police.
Maggie Blyth, independent chair of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board (OSCB), said: “This was a particularly tragic case, linked to the domestic abuse, but also underlying neglect, of a teenage girl and her eventual death at her abuser’s hands.”
A total of 65 recommendations have been made to the individual agencies in relation to their practice. The actions of social workers, health professionals, housing officials, police and a hostel where Jayden was staying just before her death are all highlighted.
Blyth added: “The review highlights two key findings – the continuing need for services to respond effectively to older children in need of protection; and the importance of understanding the impact of domestic abuse within adolescent relationships.”
During his trial it emerged that Blakeley was a serial abuser of his girlfriends, including Jayden. He controlled them, not allowing them to socialise with anyone else, and confiscated their phones. He also punched, kicked and bit them.
Jayden went to the police about Blakeley shortly before she was killed after he threatened to post explicit videos and photos of her on social network sites.
As a teenager Blakeley told a member of staff at the children’s home where he lived that if he ever had to dispose of a body he would hide it in an old grave so the body parts would get mixed up, confusing any DNA tests.
After he killed Jayden in December 2013 he hid her body nearby, then crammed her remains into a suitcase and hired a taxi to take him to a cemetery in Oxfordshire, where he buried her body in his uncle’s grave. He was jailed for a minimum of 20 years.
The report says Jayden’s history and the response of agencies to her and her killer was “complex”. But it adds: “Two issues have run as threads throughout the responses of agencies. The first is the effectiveness of work with adolescents. The second, more specifically is the level of understanding and response to adolescents who are experiencing domestic abuse in peer relationships.”
It says it is unrealistic to suggest that the murder could have been predicted but adds that “all the evidence pointed towards the likelihood that [Jayden] would experience further abuse including the possibility of serious emotional or physical harm”.
The report continues: “It is evident throughout this review that at the time mistakes were made by services and that the long-term approaches taken to protect [Jayden], whilst often well intended, were ultimately ineffective. There were times when it is possible that alternative responses or strategies might have made a difference, both in providing [her] with better support to help protect her from harm and in fully identifying and responding to the level of risk posed by [Blakeley].”
Too often, the report goes on, Jayden was viewed as a “difficult young person” and not recognised as a child in need of safeguarding.
The response of the key agencies on the last occasion she went missing was fundamentally “flawed and lacked a sense of urgency”.
It says “considerable information” was known across the agencies about the risks posed by Blakeley, but there was no system to support a proper multi agency assessment or plan of intervention with him.
