'Jayden letter' says dad mistreated him

Jayden Headley

The tug-of-war over 6-year-old Jayden Headley has turned nasty with a series of letters claiming the missing boy is a victim of mistreatment.

One of the letters, a note in a child's writing, was allegedly written by the boy himself - a claim denied yesterday by his father, Chris Jones.

The allegations are contained in letters sent by Jayden's grandfather, Dick Headley, to the Herald. Police say Mr Headley has been on the run since August 18, when Jayden was taken from the Hamilton public library.

The letters were written before Mr Headley's daughter Kay Skelton, who is Jayden's mother, was jailed for contempt of court on Wednesday for refusing to disclose the boy's whereabouts.

The letter allegedly written by Jayden says he wants to live with his mother.

It states: "One day a lady came to school and asked me where I wanted to live. I said with my mum. She said I had to live with Chris. I said no because he kicks me swears at me and calls me names like loser."

It goes on that "Chris kick me down the stairs and shut me out in the rain and put me to bed with no tea and wet cloths".

Mr Jones said a handwriting expert had told them the letter had not been written by a 6-year-old.

"Jayden has trouble putting sentences together. He isn't that well developed in sentence-making, let alone writing letters. We were still working on words like 'you' and 'are'."

The other letters claim Mr Jones has an anger-management problem.

Mr Headley said that when he "took Jayden" the boy was infested with head lice, was wetting the bed nightly, ate as though he was starving and had a black eye.

The letter also said the boy had not been able to ride his bike, play sport or play with his friends or cousins for eight weeks.

Mr Jones said yesterday Jayden's maternal relatives were desperately trying to fight the custody battle through the media since they had exhausted all their legal options in the six-year dispute.

The claims were designed to prevent him from having a relationship with Jayden.

The maternal family were psychologically damaging the boy, and Mr Jones said he was bewildered, frustrated and embarrassed.

"I've been accused of everything imaginable."

Often such claims of abuse against him had in the past been treated seriously by the court. But when no evidence was produced they were eventually dismissed, he said.

Mr Headley also wrote that he was unwilling to come out of hiding and would stay there until a full investigation was done.