A MAN who killed his pregnant ex-girlfriend and concealed her body before burying it in his uncle’s grave has insisted “I’m not a murderer”.
Ben Blakeley, aged 22, said he “grabbed” 17-year-old Jayden Parkinson’s throat before she fell lifeless to the ground in countryside near Didcot, Oxfordshire, in December last year.
Jayden’s late father, Paul Parkinson, was a former Breightmet High School pupil.
Former binman Blakeley admits the manslaughter of Jayden, burying her body in a field, then moving it to the grave at All Saints’ churchyard in Didcot, but denies murdering her.
Blakeley told Oxford Crown Court he arranged to meet Jayden on December 3 after “hanging up on her” during phone calls the previous day when she tried to tell him of the pregnancy.
He told the court: “Jayden was pregnant once every few weeks, she was always pregnant. It was nothing new.”
The court heard post-mortem tests have been unable to establish whether Jayden was pregnant.
A post-mortem examination found she had bruising to her arms, head and face but Blakeley denied he had inflicted them while she was alive.
He said he did not punch Jayden and was not a murderer. He said he could not understand why she was dead.
The trial continues.
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