THE police watchdog has been called in to investigate the response to the disappearance of former Pendle schoolgirl Jayden Parkinson.

The 17-year-old, who went to Primet High School in Colne for around a year, was reported missing to Thames Valley Police early last December.

Her body was found just over two weeks later in a freshly-disturbed grave in Didcot, Oxfordshire.

Police have also revealed the teenager, whose dad Paul still lives in Pendle, died from ‘pressure to the neck’.

An initial post-mortem examination was inconclusive and toxicology tests are being carried out, Thames Valley Police said.

Jayden’s ex-boyfriend Ben Blakeley, 22, has been charged with her murder and perverting the course of justice.

Blakeley, of Christchurch Road, Reading, is due before Oxford Crown Court for a plea hearing on March 17. A 17-year-old boy is charged with perverting the course of justice between December 3 and 10 by allegedly helping to dispose of Jayden’s body and other evidence.

A 48-year-old woman, from Didcot, was arrested last month, also on suspicion of perverting the course of justice, and was given bail to March 14.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is now investigating the response of Thames Valley Police to a missing person report and their later actions following Jayden’s disappearance.

Associate commissioner Guido Liguori said the case was ‘desperately sad’.