THE teenage brother of the man who murdered Jayden Parkinson "knew full well" he was helping bury her body in their uncle's grave, a jury has been told.

Jake Blakeley, the 18-year-old younger brother of killer Ben Blakely, went on trial yesterday at Oxford Crown Court accused of preventing a lawful burial between December 2 and December 10, 2013.

Prosecutor Matthew Walsh said the teenager, who was 17 at the time, was "called in" by his older brother after the 22-year-old murdered his former girlfriend in countryside south of Didcot on December 3, 2013.

He said Ben Blakekey was convicted of Jayden's murder last year after her body was discovered buried in a Didcot churchyard in the grave of his uncle Alan Kennedy on December 18, 2013.

Opening the prosecution's case, he told the jury: "It is for you to decide what Jake Blakeley did in the days and weeks after Jayden Parkinson's death, and importantly what he knew at the time.

"It is agreed that on two separate occasions Jake Blakeley assisted his brother Ben Blakeley in the digging of two holes at two separate locations.

Our top stories

"It is also agreed that in due course when those holes had been dug that Jayden's body was placed into each of them. So in effect those holes became graves.

"The first hole served as a temporary hiding place for her body.

"And then her body was moved to the second hole or grave in a churchyard in Didcot.

"And had it not been discovered there, it might have been her final resting place."

The barrister said Jayden was murdered by Ben Blakeley, who is from Didcot but was living in Christchurch Road, Reading, at the time of the crime, after she left the One Foot Forward hostel in Iffley Road where she was living and went to meet him.

He told the jury the older Blakeley was "bullying and abusive" towards his ex-partner and killed Jayden after she discovered she might have been pregnant with his child.

Mr Walsh said: "There is of course no doubt that Ben Blakeley murdered Jayden.

"The question you will have to consider is whether Jake Blakeley, this defendant - involved in the digging of holes at these two sites - whether he knew that what he was doing was helping in the burial of Jayden Parkinson.

"Did he know that he was in fact helping his brother burying her body?

"The prosecution does not suggest for a moment that Jake Blakeley had any involvement in the murder.

"Rather that he was brought in very soon afterwards to help in the clean up.

"The prosecution say that he knew full well what he was doing."

Mr Walsh said the excuses put forward by Jake Blakeley, of Venners Water in Didcot, for his actions - that he though he was helping his brother first bury weapons and then a dead dog and a dead cat - were "absurd".

He also said calls between the two brothers, and to their mother and older brother Chris, immediately after the killing also pointed to Jake's guilt.

The trial continues.

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed