Παρασκευή 4 Ιουλίου 2014

Jayden Parkinson killer tells court: I didn't mean to hurt her


Jayden Parkinson killer tells court: I didn't mean to hurt her
Jayden was last seen alive with Blakeley on the afternoon of 3 December last year in Didcot. Photograph: Thames Valley Police/PA
A former binman has described how he strangled his pregnant ex-girlfriend to death but thought she was "joking" when her lifeless body fell to the ground.
Ben Blakeley, 22, admits he killed 17-year-old Jayden Parkinson after finding out she was expecting his child but denies murdering her.
The self-confessed petty thief and drug user said he grabbed the teenager around the throat after he realised she was lying to him and about sleeping with another man.
"I asked her if she was definitely lying about the dude and she let go of me and looked away from me," Blakeley told Oxford crown court. I said you are definitely lying about that dude. She just let go, didn't answer and looked down. I grabbed her around the neck. Two hands."
But Blakeley insisted: "I didn't grab her that hard. I had grabbed her harder before." Asked how long he held her, he replied: "Not long ... seconds."
Richard Benson QC, representing Blakeley, asked him: "What were you hoping she would say or do?"
He replied: "Tell me the truth, I said it twice. I let go of her. She fell backwards off the bridge on to the ground into the mud.
"She was making noises when she was on the floor."
At that point Jayden's mother Erica Simms left the court crying.
Blakeley, who had also broken down in tears, said: "When she hit the ground, I laughed, man, and I thought she was joking and I said get up. I didn't mean to hurt Jayden. I thought she was joking ... I pushed on her chest as hard as I could. I blew in her mouth and it didn't do anything, so I held her nose and then blew in her mouth at the same time.
"I grabbed her face and was shouting at her 'Wake up'. It didn't seem real, man. It didn't seem real. I was shaking her."
Blakeley told the court that he held a mobile phone over Jayden's face to see if she was breathing, but she was not.
Blakeley said he moved Jayden's body to under a nearby tree and covered her with a branch and left her, walking to Didcot station and catching a train home to Reading.
Before he started giving his evidence, he asked for the suitcase in which he transported Jayden's body to her grave to be removed from in front of the witness box.
Describing his and Jayden's relationship, he said: "We had a laugh, smoked weed, drink and sniff, flirting ... We just connected. We were perfect at times. We were in love. There were more good times than bad but people have only heard the bad, but that's how it is."
Blakeley admitted to jurors that he was obsessive and controlling and said he had threatened to post intimate naked videos and photographs of Jayden on Facebook – hoping that she would kill herself as a result.
"I thought she had cheated on me," Blakeley said."I just wanted to piss her off. I was fucking angry. I am not trusting, I don't trust, you know what I mean? I can't help it. I am a very paranoid person."
Blakeley admitted that he first smoked cannabis when he was at primary school and by the time he was in a relationship with Jayden he was using it every day. He would also smoke the stronger skunk cannabis and also take cocaine.
Jayden was last seen alive with Blakeley on the afternoon of 3 December last year in Didcot, having met to discuss her pregnancy. When she had broken the news to Blakeley 24 hours previously in a telephone call he became angry, denying he was the father, prosecutors allege.
On 19 December, her body was recovered from the grave of Blakeley's uncle, Alan Kennedy, at All Saints' churchyard in Didcot. In the graveyard Blakeley and his co-accused, a 17-year-old boy who cannot be identified for legal reasons, are accused of burying Jayden's body in the grave of Kennedy, who died in 2006.
Blakeley, of Christchurch Road, Reading, Berkshire, has denied murdering Jayden but has admitted her manslaughter and attempting to pervert the course of justice. But the prosecution refused to accept his plea and he has now gone on trial alongside the boy. The youth has also pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice but denies a charge of preventing a lawful burial.
A post-mortem examination found that Jayden died as a result of pressure to the neck.
There was also evidence of "relatively widespread" areas of bruising to her face and scalp which was indicative of being caused by a fist or foot.
The trial was adjourned until Friday.

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