THE jury has been sent out to consider its verdict in the murder trial of the man who killed Jayden Parkinson.

Yesterday Judge Patrick Eccles finished summing up the evidence given by witnesses at Oxford Crown Court.

He repeated the evidence of support workers in the One Foot Forward hostel, in Iffley Road, Oxford, that the 17-year-old told them she was pregnant before she died.

But he told the six men and six women of the jury that her pregnancy had not been proven, so they must not allow it to prejudice them against defendant Ben Blakeley.

He said: “You must not think this is evidence which creates any feeling of prejudice towards the defendant.”

Judge Eccles added it was only evidence of what Jayden’s intent was in going to meet Ben Blakeley, 22, on December 3, and what his state of mind was when he killed her.

He also recounted evidence from support worker Courtney Bateman, who said when she arrived at the hostel in early November, Jayden stayed in her room, allegedly because her boyfriend told her to.

But she claimed after Jayden ended the relationship later that month she underwent a “transformation” – becoming “a normal giggling teenage girl”.

Ben Blakeley, formerly of Christchurch Road, Reading, admits manslaughter and perverting the course of justice, but denies murder.

Younger brother Jake Blakeley, 17, of Venners Water, Didcot, admits perverting the course of justice but denies preventing a lawful burial.

The trial continues.

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