Jaden Moodie: Murder of boy, 14, highlights need for national exploitation system, review finds

Jaden Moodie was 14 when he was knocked off his moped and stabbed to death in east London, in January 2019. Ayoub Majbouline was convicted of Jaden’s murder in December 2019.

The review, written by John Drew, the former chief executive of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, outlines how three months before his death, Jaden was found with an older boy in a county lines flat in Bournemouth with class A drugs, a mobile phone and £325 in cash.

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After being interviewed by Dorset Police, Jaden, referred to in the report as ‘Child C’, was driven by officers back to London, where he was staying with his grandmother while his mother’s housing application was being processed, but did not involve specialist child exploitation workers.

Drew called the incident a “pivotal event”. The council began to assess his needs for help and protection as a result of the incident, but the report states that at the time “the council and its partners did not have enough information to understand the full extent of Child C’s vulnerability to criminal exploitation”.

Drew concluded the poor communication between Waltham Forest Council's children’s social care services, Dorset Police and the Metropolitan Police meant that agencies failed to capitalise on a “reachable moment”.

Jaden was described in his police interview as being frightened and recognising the risks he was taking, and his mother had also reported concerns about items of clothing and jewellery she had discovered in his possession.

Drew concludes that he was clearly a victim of criminal exploitation.

“While the importance of maximising the potential of reachable moments in working with children is beginning to be recognised, there is as yet no satisfactory approach to covering the whole country when a child who is exposed to ‘county lines’ style operations is found a distance away from their home and so reachable moments are being missed,” the review states.

“There were also difficulties in communication between the authorities in Bournemouth and Waltham Forest, and there was an incomplete transfer of information between them. The absence of a national approach to guide all concerned at such moments serves children like Child C badly.

“Had it been possible for Child C to have met specialist child exploitation workers while still in custody, and then brought back to London by these workers, and ideally if they could have continued to work with him for a time after his return, I believe such workers would have been able to exploit the ‘reachable moment’ of this crisis in the police station, during the car journey, and then subsequently, and start exploring with Child C the risks to him of his vulnerability to exploitation. But this was not the brief of the Dorset Police officers who were providing a well-intended but basic service in driving Child C back to London."

Waltham Forest is part of a pan-London consortium using a ‘Rescue and Response Service’ commissioned by the Mayor of London. However, the rescue element service was not fully operational until January 2019 and so was not available to help Child C in October 2018.

"It seems clear to me that there should be an appreciable demand for such a rescue and response service,” the review concludes.

Drew found no evidence that Child C’s murder could have been predicted and states it is not possible to say whether different responses to Child C, particularly from September 2018 onwards would have reduced the ultimate threat that he faced.

“It is, however, the case that considerable resources were being mobilised for continuing work with Child C and his family in the two months prior to his death, the aim being to reduce his vulnerability to criminal exploitation.”

The report also notes that Jaden had been in school for just three of his last 22 months. 

Drew says that "the current arrangements governing home education contributed to his
vulnerability to criminal exploitation".

He also highlights a failure by Nottinghamshire Police to share information about two gun-related incidents involving Jaden with other agencies involved in his care. The force also failed to share information about threats made to the teenager in the summer of 2018, Drew states.