TOMORROW, Sam Shrewsbury should have been cradling her newborn grandchild in her arms and celebrating her daughter’s 18th birthday.

Instead, she will hold a party to raise funds for victims of domestic abuse in her daughter’s memory.

Jayden Parkinson, 17, was killed by her ex-boyfriend Ben Blakeley in a field south of Didcot in December.

It is thought she met him to tell him she was pregnant and try to persuade him he was the father, but he lashed out at her, putting his hands around her throat.

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Blakeley was found guilty of murder at Oxford Crown Court in July and sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 20 years.

But Miss Shrewsbury said nothing could have brought her any satisfaction after what she and her family went through.

The 47-year-old said: “When Jayden was alive I promised to take her to a festival on her 18th birthday.

“Obviously that’s not going to happen, so I decided to throw a birthday party to remember her.

“I am still heartbroken. I try to get up and do normal things like everybody else but to me, my life stopped the day he took my daughter.

Oxford Mail:

  • Jayden Parkinson

“Every day is a key date; she would have had the baby in August, this weekend we are laying her headstone, it is her birthday on Friday.”

She said Jayden, a student at Didcot Girls’ School, was a “quirky, feisty girl”, who treated people as individuals.

She said: “She didn’t see people in groups like the posh girls, the smart girls, the cool girls – she was friends with everybody.”

Jayden, she admitted, had a “chaotic” upbringing, moving from her birthplace in Ashford, Kent, to Oxfordshire, then going to live with her father Paul in Lancashire before returning to Oxfordshire.

Her mother said she had an “old head on young shoulders”.

Tomorrow night, local bands will perform from 5.30pm to midnight at Didcot’s Wheatsheaf pub in a mini-festival to raise funds for the charity Jayden’s Gift.

Miss Shrewsbury, who lives in Didcot with her partner Dean Jones, wants to use the charity to give extra support to domestic abuse victims.

She needs £5,000 to register it as an official charity, and already has £3,000. She also wants to use the charity to campaign for a change in the way the law treats teenagers who might be in abusive relationships.

She said: “When Jayden was 16 she could go anywhere she wanted to, she was treated as independent by the police. The police could go where she was staying and come back to me and say ‘she’s safe, we can’t bring her back’.

“I think the police should have the authority to bring them back home, to stop this occurring.”

Miss Shrewsbury said she was prepared to petition the Government and knock on Prime Minister David Cameron’s door to try to change the law.

Romy Briant, chairwoman of Oxfordshire Domestic Abuse Strategy Group, said: “I think this is a wonderful initiative.

“Young people are particularly at risk and sometimes have very specific needs of their own.”

Jayden’s Gift aims to:

  • Raise money to support existing domestic abuse services
  • Set up a fund for teenage abuse victims s Sponsor a safe house for young people in difficulty in Oxfordshire
  • Campaign for changes in the way the law treats young people who are potentially at risk of abuse

Six Thames Valley Police officers are facing a misconduct probe by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) over Jayden’s disappearance.

Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board is carrying out a Serious Case Review over her disappearance from a supported housing scheme in Iffley Road.

Blakeley’s younger brother Jake, accused of preventing a lawful burial, will be tried in January.

Jayden’s father, who was 48, died a week before the trial was due to start in June . He is believed to have suffered a heart attack.

Her older sister Sharday George still lives in Sheffield.

Find out more at reducingtherisk.org.uk

If you are a victim of domestic abuse or know someone who is, call the helpline on 0800 7310055