A camera-shy girl wise well beyond her years

Published on Sunday 23 January 2005 00:41

AWKWARD and camera-shy, the enduring image of Jodi Jones is that of a teenager just emerging from childhood.

Because of the now familiar home video footage released at the time of her death, she will always be remembered at that transitional stage - of baggy clothes, hair braids and lip piercing. What she could have become can only be guessed at.

But the attributes of intelligence, popularity, wisdom and protectiveness were all there already.

Born on January 3, 1989 to Judith and James Jones, she had an older brother, Joseph, and a sister, Janine, who both doted on their little sister, whom they nicknamed ‘Toad’.

The family had little spare cash and spent many years living with Judith’s mother because they could not afford a place of their own.

James Jones, a postman, suffered depression after being turned down for a job. His family’s lives were turned upside down in 1998 when his wife and son found him dead by his own hand, hanging from a tree in the garden.

Jodi was forced to grow up quickly and became a huge source of comfort to her mother, often buying her sunflowers to cheer her up.

Judith spoke highly of her daughter during the trial, describing her as "very level-headed" but also "very strong-minded".

She spoke of her shock when police told her that Jodi had been self-harming.

Like many teenagers in the group of friends she and Luke shared, she also smoked cannabis.

As she entered her teenage years, Jodi had begun experimenting with her appearance.

Although she always needed to wear the spectacles she had worn since childhood, the pretty dresses she had worn then were discarded in favour of football shirts, and then, aged 13, the black baggy clothes favoured by Goths. At one stage she died her hair bright red.

Jodi initially had a difficult time settling into life at St David’s High School but by her second year she had got used to secondary school and was receiving good reports and keeping on top of her work.

She also took to writing poetry.

Speaking in the moments after the guilty verdict, her mother confirmed what many people would have guessed, that Jodi would have hated the "notoriety" that her death had brought.

But she also paid tribute to the "words of wisdom" her daughter had often uttered. "Thus my little mentor Jodi will live always in all of us. She remains my strength."