A CHARITY in memory of murdered teenager Jayden Parkinson is set to start raising money for vulnerable children this month.
Jayden was killed by her ex-boyfriend Ben Blakeley in a field south of Didcot in December 2013 when she was 17 years old.
The charity Jayden’s Gift will raise money for ‘safe houses’ in the county – which Jayden’s mum Sam Shrewsbury said might have prevented her murder.
The houses would be run as a place for vulnerable children to go for the occasional night when they have nowhere else to turn.
Jayden’s mother also said she would be petitioning Prime Minister David Cameron over the age at which children were considered adults.
She said: “The charity will raise awareness and money for victims of domestic abuse to support them.
“The safe houses would be run by people who had passed CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks – it would offer vulnerable victims somewhere to go before the police and social services can step in the next day.”
Miss Shrewsbury added: “We are working on a web page at the moment and once we have that we will get our registered charity number and we can start.”
Apart from the charity Miss Shrewsbury, from Didcot, wants to petition the Prime Minister for more flexibility when it comes to the age someone is classified as a child.
She said: “Jayden was considered an adult so didn’t have to go home – but she was only 16. We hope to petition David Cameron on the doorstep of Number 10 over this – we want a change in the law.”
An Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation into the police’s dealings with Miss Parkinson in the year before her death revealed that her mother had thrown her out and changed the locks six months before her murder.
Miss Shrewsbury told the Oxford Mail that she had tried the “tough love” approach and Jayden had chosen Ben over her.
The investigation found that the police made a “series of errors” prior to and after Jayden was killed by Ben Blakeley, who is now serving a life sentence with a minimum of 20 years.
It found Thames Valley Police failed to record information and allocate sufficient resources, but that any actions the officers should have taken would not have prevented her death.
To lend support to the new charity go to facebook.com/JaydensGift
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