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Police should have classed Jayden's case as 'high risk'

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has published a report into Thames Valley Police's handling of the Jayden Parkinson case. The 17-year-old from Didcot was murdered by an ex -boyfriend.

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Police force criticised for way it handled 'interactions' with 'vulnerable' Jayden before her murder

Teenager Jayden Parkinson was murdered by her ex-boyfriend

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has released its report into the way that Thames Valley Police handled the disappearance of Oxfordshire teenager Jayden Parkinson, and the force's earlier interactions with her in the year 2013.

Seventeen-year-old Jayden was murdered by her former boyfriend Ben Blakeley, who is currently serving a life sentence for killing her.

The IPCC report identified a number of errors in Thames Valley Police's handling of its dealing with Jayden. It found that Thames Valley Police had '... failed to record pertinent information and to allocate sufficient resources to progress earlier enquiries regarding Jayden, which had a detrimental impact on the later missing person investigation.'.

“Jayden Parkinson had already been murdered by Ben Blakeley when she was reported missing and therefore the actions the police should have taken could not have prevented her tragic death.

“However, Jayden was clearly vulnerable when she came to police attention a number of times prior to her death. If information about these interactions had been correctly recorded on police systems, Jayden would have been treated as a high priority when she later went missing. Unfortunately it took nearly a week for the force to identify that Jayden was a high risk missing person.”

– IPCC Associate Commissioner Guido Liguori

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