Sitting in his home in the quiet, sun-dappled town of Buff Bay, Jamaica, the grief-stricken father of tragic schoolboy Jaden Moodie is still trying to come to terms with his son’s cold-blooded murder.
Julian Moodie was out shopping when the devastating news arrived on Tuesday, via a phone call, just minutes after 14-year-old Jaden was knocked from his moped by a car on an East London street and stabbed in the back seven times by a gang of men.
‘Then the pictures came through on my phone,’ says 51-year-old Mr Moodie. ‘And then I passed out. I couldn’t believe it.
‘My ex-wife, Jada, called me and said she was cooking Jaden’s dinner when someone called her. She ran out to the street and saw him on the ground.’
Julian Moodie (left) at home in Jamaica with his sister Rosie (right) speaks about the death of his son Jaden Moodie
Mr Moodie is adamant Jaden's death was a case of mistaken identity, that his son was a ‘helpful and loving person and not violent’, and that there was never any inclination that he was into ‘wrongdoing’.
‘I was on the phone with him the Friday before it happened and I said to him: “All I want you to do is stay out of trouble and make something of your life.”’
But as disturbing evidence grows that Jaden may have been in thrall to drugs gangs in Waltham Forest where he lived, the Mail can reveal Mr Moodie himself has served time in jail for drugs offences.
He was ensnared in an undercover operation by Essex police in 2008, and in February 2009 was jailed for three-and-a-half years at Basildon Crown Court for dealing crack cocaine.
When he appeared in court, the father-of-six’s claim that he had turned to dealing as a way of ‘earning a living’ for his family held little weight with Judge Alice Robinson, who told him: ‘The supply of drugs is a pernicious trade. It causes untold misery not only to those who are addicted to drugs but to the wider public who suffer as a result of the extensive knock-on effect of the offences.’
Fast-forward ten years and there are alarming signs that the judge’s words have come back to haunt Mr Moodie in the most painful way possible.
Jaden Moodie childhood pictures posted online by sister Leah Green, Jaden is said to be two years old in the picture on the right
Yet, possibly equally painful is the Mail’s discovery this week that, right up until the end of his life, Jaden was at a crossroads, torn between the right and the wrong path and unsure which way to turn.
That afternoon, as he zipped around the streets of Waltham Forest on a moped, Jaden had stopped to chat to volunteers on a charity ‘youth bus’.
The bus, which is operated by the Christian charity Worth Unlimited, is driven to Bickley Road, in Leyton, East London, at the same time, and on the same day, each week, offering support, advice and fun activities as well as a safe haven to youngsters in an area deeply afflicted by gang violence and juvenile delinquency.
This wasn’t the first time Jaden had visited, but on Tuesday he decided not to join the others on board for a few video games. Maybe he took offence at the volunteers’ questioning him riding a moped under-age.
Jaden Moodie (centre) pictured in his school uniform at eight-years-old
He claimed to be 16, but clearly didn’t look it. In any case, at 4.30pm, he was on his way again.
Two hours later, Jaden was knocked from his moped and fatally stabbed in the back seven times. He was just 50 metres from the youth bus when he bled to death.
He had obviously been trying to flee the gang of men who caught and killed him, and attempting to reach the sanctuary of the bus. Two youth workers who had previously chatted to him were among the first on the scene, rushing out with a first-aid kit to help a passing police officer desperately trying to save the boy’s life.
According to the charity, the pair have been left too traumatised to speak about what happened after ‘seeing the boy die in front of them’. But their encounter with Jaden during the last few hours of his life illustrates the extent to which this young teenager was at a crossroads in his life.
Jaden Moodie had previously posted pictures of himself holding bundles of cash on social media
Still very much a child, he was teetering on the periphery of the deadly adult world of drugs and county-lines gangs known to exploit young children.
His grieving mother and siblings can only think of the boy they’ve lost, his infectious character and charm. ‘He had a huge heart and would do anything for everyone, especially his family,’ they said.
But on Facebook and Instagram, Jaden liked to describe himself as a ‘driller’ and a ‘trapper’ — gangland patois for ‘gunman’ and ‘drug mule’. He posted photographs of himself waving bundles of £50 and £20 notes and posing on a moped without number plates.
The teenager (pictured above) had also posted pictures of himself on his moped
Most disturbing of all, the Mail has seen a video posted online of Jaden posing with a gun, suggesting that, at the very least, he admired the gangster lifestyle and, quite possibly, had stepped into it.
Just before Christmas, the teenager was expelled from Heathcote School in Chingford, according to fellow pupils because of something his teachers had seen on social media.
None of this, of course, makes his death any less tragic. For these apparently conflicting descriptions of Jaden as both beloved child and as a youngster who had been lured towards a criminal underworld, are, above all, a sign of how complex a problem Britain’s drugs gangs have become.
