THERE’S a point on top of the old railway line from Didcot to Upton from where you can see the three remaining cooling towers of Didcot Power Station to the north and the footbridge where Ben Blakeley throttled his 17-year-old former girlfriend Jayden Parkinson to death to the south.
Didcot was shaken this weekend literally and metaphorically.
On Friday, Blakeley, at 22, was given a life sentence for murdering the Didcot teenager and told he would serve a minimum of 20 years in prison.
At 5am on Sunday, three of the cooling towers which some said had scarred the landscape for five decades were blown up.
Onlookers said it looked like they melted like butter.
Two of the biggest events that have happened in Didcot since Isambard Kingdom Brunel put it on the map 150 years ago both happened under cover of darkness, the latter for public safety, the former to hide a secret.
On Sunday afternoon, dog walkers strolled along the former railway line and through the rural byways that Blakeley soiled with his despicable act, kicking up clouds of dust and disturbing whatever evidence might remain.
By the time he is released from prison, a new housing estate will probably have been built where the power station now stands.
It will take considerably longer for anyone to forget the events of this weekend — and friends of Jayden Parkinson will probably never be able to forgive.
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