By Eric King-
The initial response to the application for housing for murdered Jaden Gooden in Waltham Forest was slow and no new action was taken to ensure the application for rehousing was reopened after being closed.
Waltham Forest Council failed to address the accommodation issues faced by Jade Godden’s mother.
Jaden Moodie, 14, was knocked off a moped in Leyton, East London, and stabbed to death by a group of attackers in an apparent gang dispute. Ayoub Majdouline, 19, was found guilty of Jaden’s murder and sentenced to at least 21 years in prison last December Jaden’s murder.
Three of Majdouline’s accomplices were never caught.
Sluggish
The authour of a comprehensive report said the sluggishness of Waltham Forest Council in responding to the application, could have had an impact on DE’s ability to exercise parental control and supervision over young Gooden.
The Waltham Forest Housing Service have expressed disagreement with the conclusion .The report concludes that the Housing Service was not engaged in multi-agency discussions about how to respond to the criminal exploitation of Mr. Gooden
It said that the Housing Service was holding information not known to any other agency, and was also controlling resources that were an important component of the plan to protect Mr. Gooden from future criminal exploitation.
”Background information about Mr. Gooden carried out by the Waltham Forest Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) was incomplete and the Waltham Forest High School should have been alerted to the involvement of one of their pupils in these events”, the report states.
The MASH defended its failure to conduct thorough background checks, by stating that a full intelligence check on every referral it receives would be disproportionate in all cases.
The fairly exhaustive report concluded that the safeguarding team may need to audit their aspirations in terms of adequate safeguarding standards in protecting children from criminal exploitation.
Evidence
The report said there was no evidence that Mr. Goden’s murder could have been predicted. A critical point of assessment raised was whether the risk of murder should have been foreseen as a strong possibility given the knowledge they had at the time.
Waltham Forest Council say they want to learn key lessons from the experience. The authour is in no doubt that Waltham Forest Council was too slow in its responses, but questions how quickly the young mother’s application to move them and get her son back into education should have been met, given the knowledge the Council had at the time.
Is it with the benefit of hindsight that the seriousness of Council failings like these are laid bare, or should they have been quicker in finding MrGooden alternative education?
There could well have been the added factor that not many schools would have wanted to accept a teenager with a record of handling guns and threatening pupils with pellet guns, let alone one found in a crack den.
Question’s still linger as to how a teenager like Gooden should have been handled. There have also been some whispers that not many Councils would be interested in locating a gang member in their neighbourhood, but the legal obligation to respond to housing issues means they don’t discuss these concerns, but simply choose when to act or don’t act.