Jury finds education officer Jayden Thorpe not guilty of kidnapping two girls and supplying them with drugs

A jury has found Indigenous education officer Jayden Thorpe not guilty of kidnapping two girls and plying them with MDMA on a coke-fuelled road trip.

Jayden Thorpe is on trial in the Newcastle District Court. Supplied Amy Ziniak

A jury has found Indigenous education officer Jayden Thorpe not guilty of kidnapping two girls and plying them with MDMA on a coke-fuelled road trip.

In Newcastle District Court on Wednesday, jurors found the Cliftleigh man not guilty of two charges of taking and detaining a person 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 at a hotel, bowling club and well-known swimming hole.

It was heard during the journey, he offered the girls high-grade cocaine before he dropped them off that afternoon.

But during the trial despite Crown Prosecutor Kristy Mulley arguing the girls had no motive to lie about what happened that day and were “scared”, Thorpe had strenuously denied he took the girls without their consent and that they had come voluntarily.

Former education officer Jayden Hudson Thorpe is on trial over the alleged kidnapping. Picture: Supplied.

In relation to the allegations of plying the girls with MDMA, the jury also heard Thorpe pulled out a Panadol to take for a headache and when the girls asked what it was, he snapped it in half for them, citing it was not an illicit substance.

The jury heard that Thorpe had spent over six hours with the girls and there were multiple opportunities for them to have left or contacted a passer-by if they were uncomfortable.

There was also a question over the girls’ credibility.

Defence barrister Jacob Tate also questioned why his client would try to defend a charge of supplying MDMA to both girls when he had already pleaded guilty to supplying them with cocaine.

Thorpe had already pleaded guilty to supplying both girls with cocaine and a charge of procuring a child for unlawful sexual activity, which related to a 14-year-old girl he contacted on Snapchat and sent a barrage of inappropriate and sexually explicit messages at around 3am that same morning.

Originally published as Jury finds education officer Jayden Thorpe not guilty of kidnapping two girls and supplying them with drugs