7 days ago
Former NSW education officer Jayden Thorpe found not guilty of kidnapping schoolgirls
A former Aboriginal education officer at a Hunter Valley high school has been found not guilty of kidnapping two schoolgirls.
Jayden Hudson Thorpe, 32, had been on trial in Newcastle District Court since May 21.
The Cliftleigh man pleaded not guilty to two charges of taking and detaining a person with intent to obtain advantage, and not guilty to two counts of drug supply.
He also denied detaining the girls with intent to obtain an advantage and two counts of supplying the girls, aged 15 and 16, with the narcotic MDMA on February 7, 2023.
The court heard Thorpe picked the girls up that morning and took them on an all-day road trip across the Upper Hunter, with various stops along the way.
Thorpe denied giving them the psychedelic drug or detaining the pair for advantage and said they had come voluntarily.
A Newcastle District Court jury retired on Tuesday afternoon to consider the two kidnapping charges and the two MDMA charges.
On Wednesday afternoon, the jury delivered a not guilty verdict to all four offences.
It was the second time Thorpe had stood trial on those charges, after a retrial was organised when a previous jury was unable to deliver a verdict.
Before the March trial, Thorpe pleaded guilty to two drug offences — supplying both girls with cocaine during the day.
He had also pleaded guilty to procuring a third child, a 14-year-old girl, for unlawful sexual activity on February 7, 2023.
Thorpe is due to be sentenced for the three offences he pleaded guilty to on August 28.
He is expected to apply for bail before then.
