The “EVIL obsessive ex boyfriend” – [2024] Murder Documentary UK

17-year-old Jayden Parkinson was attracted to the bad boy allure of Ben Blakeley. But he started to lead her down a chaotic path that resulted in her disappearance

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In a rural churchard in dut Oxfordshire a shallow grave hides the body of 17-year-old Jaden Parkinson this was the first case where um a body had been disposed of in a grave in in in such a manner so it’s very unusual Jaden Parkinson has disappeared from the hostel where she’s been staying

It is just weeks before Christmas and now detectives are trying to piece together what has happened I never ever in a million years thought he’d kill her because he’d been telling her that it was going to be me that he was going to kill that’s how he was keeping her in

Check all all the cases are unleas but it’s even worse when it’s a young person I think when it’s somebody of this age because she’s an innocent 17-year-old girl you ask yourself if more could have been done to stop it and prevent it in the first place the only way you can

Make it in the slightest bit better is to find the person that’s been being murdered uh return her to her family and then deal with the person that’s responsible detectives gather evidence until a picture of a suspect emerges which piece of the puzzle will reveal Ben Blakeley as guilty of murder what

Will be a Killer’s Mistake I She was hilarious funny quirky annoying all those things that a teenager is she’d be a best friend and your worst enemy at the same [Laughter] time Jaden Parkinson is born on the 26th of C September 1996 in folston on the south coast of England she was proper C she’d follow me

Everywhere everything was what why when how you couldn’t shut her up from the time she got out to the time she went to bed to be fair all the way through her life the youngest of three children whose parents increasingly difficult relationship and chaotic home life means

That Jaden is only 7 years old when her parents separate he got custody the the two youngest which is her brother and her Jaden’s father moved the family to Lancashire but Sam and Jaden remain close and happy in her new life when she’s 13 Jaden runs away to live with

Her mom in didk a small town 15 Mi south of Oxford that then started the ball rolling with courts um and yeah I was allowed to keep her now with full custody of Jaden at a chance to make a fresh thought Sam enrolls her daughter in a girl school just a few miles

Away I met her first of all at school she was very loud funny um and I said oh what’s your name and she was like I’m Jaden with a little smile she was a very good a girl like me I think that’s why we got on so well

Because we love hair makeup hair dye she’d always be smelling the perfumes and spraying them all over herself picking up the makeup she was the only real good best friend that I had jayen was a headstrong kid she wasn’t backwards in coming forwards either she would tell you how it

Is she had loads of friends that she quite an Eclectic mix and then she met Ben and it all went downhill from then I think it was when we was at the park one day she says I like this older guy I was like okay what’s his name like

What’s he like and then she told me Ben Blakeley and I must have been silent for about 5 minutes because I didn’t know what to say and then and then I was like begging her I was like please Jaden please do not go there with him Ben’s family lived around the corner

Um all her mates lived in that that vicinity sort of thing the first time I see Ben he rode past on a bike and he called her Jade I was like who’s that and she was like don’t worry about it some rra I don’t know what made Jaden

Fancy him uh I really don’t cuz he’s nothing much to look at there was things on the internet the police were looking for a group that were on a train he bought some kid because the lad had said something to his cousin a female girl um so he boted him I

Suppose Jaden liked the idea of him being a bad boy and I was trying to tell her like how bad news he was was even if she had been told look he’s got a history would she have believed it would she have believed it because very often these manipulative types which Blakeley

Was will say well none of it was my fault I was just pulled into this and she probably if she felt like she you know she really liked him she would have believed him Jaden is only 15 years old she ignores warnings from friends and family and begins dating

Blakele she was a child he was 20 years old 5 years older than her he had had relationships before so I I can imagine it was an incredibly exciting but difficult time for her she was absolutely boted with him she’d do anything for him but it isn’t long before their relationship

Begins to take its toll on on Jaden she stopped wearing makeup she stopped wearing nice clothes he literally drained a personality completely when we think about the red flags that were definitely there definitely there right from the beginning of this relationship you know we have to look at it in context so

Jaden was just a child she had quite a chaotic life herself you know the lots of different things were happening for Jaden um and not all of it was good went to the shop once in the town clothes shopping and I said oh look at this top

And the first thing she turned around and said to me was Ben won’t like me wearing that he can’t tell you what to do like you’re your own person Jaden if you want to wear that top you wear it and she didn’t buy it she said he

Won’t like it me wearing that it’s not the right top and that’s when it finally dropped I was like he’s controlling once Jaden committed to Blakeley or he assumed that she had committed that means he now owns her in his head for some of these controlling type men the first time

That they have sex that might be the moment where right you’ve committed to me now you’ve made that commitment and very often that is the case and that can be the point then at which the control and the violence and the abuse can start I was in in the flat and she come

Up and she had a big mark on her face I was like what’s happened to you she was like nothing I was like get here and she was like nothing I was like it’s punched you Ben I went running down the stairs you touched my daughter again you Ru the day

You ever met my family trust me it was the worst move I could have ever done because that made him then isolate her from me I said to her if he’s hitting you this isn’t normal this is not love she just said but I love him and he

Doesn’t mean to do it to me he just gets angry sometimes I said that’s not love Jaden I said he’s controlling you and he doesn’t want you to have anyone he wants you all to himself throughout this time Blakeley issues terrifying threats to Jaden we had a pregnant cat good lucky

It transpired that he killed the cat and showed her and said if you don’t behave this is what’s going to happen she would never have been accepted of that but she may have been terrified of it she’d have started behaving in a way that she would do anything to avoid

What she might have seen as making him angry enough to behave like that the relationship between Jaden and Ben Blakeley tears the family apart despite the abuse She’s suffering Jaden stands by him Sam can take it no longer I want it to shake her I want it

To shake some sense into her we fought over him that’s why I put my foot down and said I’m not having this no more she was stealing out of my flat taking things and going selling it for his drug debts or to get him drugs and you can visibly

See her Getting Thinner and thinner and more dowy more not her he’s just that don’t know some hold over Jaden moves out of her mom’s flat and by November 2013 she’s living in a hostel in Oxford now closed it was called one foot forward a month later on Tuesday

December 3rd Jaden meets up with Blakeley she does not return to the hostel on Wednesday the 4th of December at 1:00 a.m. hostile staff call police to say that 17-year-old Jaden is missing they are seriously concerned about her well-being I didn’t know she was missing until 7:00 that morning when one foot

Forward rung me saying have you got jayen with you I was like nope I dropped her off with you yesterday I’ve not seen her since Sam phoned me and said have you heard from Jaden I was like no I went on to Facebook to see if anyone had seen or

Heard from her but nothing police listening to me I give them every phone number that I could think of every address me and her to them were just another pain in the backside that kept ringing and she’s just another annoying runaway until Chris Ward come back to

Work so I was the head of the major crime unit at the time for T Valley police um and I was asked to review uh the missing person case a week passes before a missing person investigation is fully underway as an investigator you’re coming up with what we’d call hypotheses so looking at

What are the likely possibilities of what’s happened to Jaden uh and I had three one was that she’d gone missing of her own will and she didn’t want to be found uh the second one was that she had been taken abducted seriously harmed by somebody uh and the third one was that

She had been injured and hadn’t been found and wasn’t able to get any help you then stru your investigations about CCTV mobile phone records speaking to Witnesses all of these things that will prove or disprove one of those theories detectives first discover footage of Jaden leaving the hostel on Tuesday the 3rd of

December just hours after her mom Sam had kissed her goodbye after visiting her she heads in the direction of Oxford train station where she can be seen with Ben Blakeley if he plans to harm her and avoid capture has he made a mistake because he’s on camera there was CCTV footage of Jaden

With Ben Blakeley they went to Oxford railway station that afternoon and they were seen them to get on a train go through the barriers and they got a train to diot Jaden can be seen walking walking nervously a few Paces behind Blakeley for the police who will soon be

Investigating further pieces of a puzzle are beginning to slot into place the last CCTV that we had of Jaden with Ben was that afternoon when they got to did cot and walked to the station and then uh that’s the last time she was seen Alive 7 days after Jaden is captured on CCTV leaving didk train station with Ben Blakeley a full police investigation into her disappearance is underway B went on I just thought this is it I’m never ever going to see her again I’m never going to see her Huger have fun with her ever again

Usually 24 48 hours i’ I’ve had a phone call from her yeah where she is what she’s doing and she’s all right la la la la la but there was nothing Detective Chris Ward and his team began working through a checklist to determine the likelihood of Jaden still being alive everything was

Starting to suggest that she’d come to some sort of harm because she hadn’t been seen or heard of for a week so I was very concerned it’s very difficult for a a young person or an adult to go missing without leaving any sort what what the police would call a footprint

So that might be a financial footprint or with their friends social media all these sorts of things you you would expect to see something in that time and there was nothing as time went on it became more than likely that she was going to be found alive so it was about finding her

And finding out what happened to her um as quickly as we could detectives will eventually comb through every frame of CCTV they can collect 6 hours after Blakeley has captured on camera with Jaden at Dida trains station of December 3rd who reappears on CCTV footage by then it’s 10:04 p.m. the

Second to of CCTV showed Ben Blakeley coming back from didcot through didcot railway station um later that evening very concerningly he was on his own she wasn’t with him we start to build up a picture of Ben blakelyy so yes he had previous convictions for theft violence there had

Been previous incidents with ex Partners but more importantly was about how he’d been behaving towards Jaden something Jaden’s friend Kaye can tell them all about Jaden had been keeping her informed she just said to me Ben’s been really nasty to me it’s like what do you mean he’s trying to

Even control me whilst I’m here at the hostal he just said I can’t go out my room I have to pee in a bucket have to do as I’m told and my first reaction to that was I just grabbed her and I just hugged her

And she cried and I cried we cried to give up what detectives are learning at this stage of the investigation is that Blakeley had made life increasingly unbearable for Jaden they are told that she had finally found the courage to end the relationship but Blakeley had responded

With yet more threats blakele had a history of violence he had a history of violence in his relationships he had a history of control and he had a history of not responding well to rejection investigators learn that when first dating Jaden he added a new weapon

To his Armory she had reported to the police that he had taken indecent images of her coming out the shower and he had threatened to distribute those on social media um so that’s a matter that was always already being investigated by by the police that must have been terrifying

Terrifying for her though because you know you put pictures on social media they’re there forever forever and if if she’s named if people recognize her he kept lots of things in the you know in his bag of tricks to make sure she stayed in his Control the investigation is turning up more pieces of the puzzle police learn that when in the hostel Jaden has become terrified of and desperate to be free from Ben Blakeley they also learn that not long before she disappears she makes a discovery that will change everything I

Woke up to about 50 misals Mom Mom you got to ring me please ring me I’ve got something really important to tell you I went and met her on the third me and her uncle um outside one foot forward we went took her into the PB I got something to tell you I’m

Pregnant I was like what she’s not pregnant I was like who’s is it she’s like who do you think it is I was like w she was adamant that she wanted to keep it she was glowing she was absolutely chuffed I drop her off at one foot forward I never saw her

Again as happy as Jaden had appeared about having a baby police also learn that she did not want Ben Blakeley in her life anymore she was adant at that point and she didn’t want to be with Ben prior to her going missing we know from the staff at one foot forward he’d

Been very aggressive to her down at the phone uh he threatened her I believe that after I left her she rung Ben in front of one foot forward staff um telling him she was pregnant uh he threatened to Chuck her off a bridge to kill her and

It in the face of such a threat what Jaden does next might appear full party but criminologists like Jane monton Smith recognize her decision Jaden wants to discuss the pregnancy so much pressure is put on young women to take this kind of moral High Ground when they get pregnant

You’ve got to tell him you’ve got to give him Choice you’ve got to you know include this father he had a history of getting girls pregnant and then behaving viciously After he finds out that they’re pregnant Jaden couldn’t have known that so it was quite a dangerous thing for her to do to

Tell him but she probably thought she was doing the right thing within 48 Hours of beginning the search for Jaden 8 days since she went missing detectives can find no proof that Jaden is alive however they do have proof on CCTV that Blakeley was seen with her on the day she

Disappeared the police release information about the case they hope they will generate leads from the public so my appeal to the public of didot is if you saw Jaden on her own or in company with anybody else after that date please come forward and let us know it would be really important and

Significant in this inquiry even with all the prec attention the chances of receiving credible leads to solve the case appear slim but this time it works the first briig breakthrough was a taxi driver so a taxi driver contacted the inquiry team and said that he picked up a mail from uh a rural

Location in didcot um in the early hours of the morning uh in in the time frame that we were talking about and this guy had a suitcase he helped put the suitcase into the car but he was now very concerned of course because of the all of the media retention he started to

Wonder if there was something more Sinister to that suitcase the taxi driver tells them that he’d picked up a passenger who closely resembled Ben Blakeley at 1:00 a.m. on December 10th he had dropped him off in a remote area of East hagorn in Oxfordshire when we looked at who made the telephone call

Uh it was Blen blakeley’s phone that had made that call he’d used to false name I was now convinced that Ben Blakeley had made that call to the taxi driver and it was Ben Blakeley that was in that Vehicle 8 days since Jaden Parkinson went missing police have grounds to arrest Ben Blakeley in connection with her disappearance you were the last person to be seen with her Aline do you have any information as to her whereabouts if I did then i’ give it They have CCTV evidence of the couple together the last known sizing of Jaden they have the taxi driver’s account that a man matching Blake Le’s description had booked a ride and he also offers a piece of evidence which worries police enormously Blakeley had with him a large heavy suitcase covered in

Mud news of the arrest reaches jadon’s mother when they arrested him we were told we’ve done a a check system uh for proof of life and all 10 checks have come back with nothing and that I was to expect the worst but hope for the best blakeley’s arrest is simply a

Start if Jaden is dead where is her body we had 23 crime scenes in the end so these are all places where we believed at some point Ben and Jaden had been and areas where there could be significant evidence one of those places was a uh

Called the spooky Barn which is an old dilapidated Barn in a field where Ben and uh Jaden had previously met I asked for the uh police body recovery dogs to go into the bar barn and they indicated very clearly there had been a body uh inside the barn and

Just outside there was a uh a coffee shop serviette outside on the ground the dog indicated on that that that there was traces of a dead body on the Soviet the evidence against Blake C is building police begin making door-to-door inquiries in residential areas close to the DAP ated Barn it is

Here that they uncover more evidence of Foul Play one which might explain why Blakeley had a suitcase with him when picking up a taxi one of those addresses that the officers called on uh was transpire to be Ben Blake’s grandparents and we had released the media the fact we were looking for uh

Any Witnesses he’d seen a guy in the other of the morning with a blue suitcase and when they knocked on the door door uh his grandmother said his first words were have you come about the suitcase there was a suitcase in a shed that she said Ben had collected from her

A few days before he’d come in in a rush saying I need a suitcase he empted the contents out on the floor uh and just taken the suitcase he had then returned uh 2 or 3 days later with the suitcase and thrown it into her shed it was covered in

Mud it was then sent away to be examined forensically at the laboratory so they the laboratory would be looking for things like hair um DNA anything that could link that suitcase to Jaden the evidence is building against Blakeley but he is still refusing to talk as police continue to dig more and

More pieces of the puzzle begin to surface the grandparents are also described um the fact that Spades were missing from the house and they’d been returned they were also covered in this thick clay two Garden Spades are recovered from the shed suggesting that perhaps Ben hadn’t been working

Alone it wasn’t long before the team make another breakthrough we’d also found some witnesses who described both uh Ben and his brother Jake uh in the time period we were interested in uh on bikes covered in mud Ben’s younger brother Jake is now implicated but it seems very out of

Character for a 17-year-old who used to be friends with Jaden he was at the boys school so the girls that she was hanging around with knew of Jake um basically they’d hang about smoking cigarettes drinking cider that sort of thing um didn’t think nothing of him he was polite enough to

Me was very different to Ben in personality he’s quite Meek and Mild bullied I suppose by Ben Jake was his little follower Ben was the leader and he was the little follower behind cuz where Ben went most of the time Jake was off with him them two were the

CES although there is no body police now suspect that Jake is somehow involved in whatever has happened their suspicions seem to be confirmed when they receive another tip off there was a lot of publicity of course by this time everybody knew that Ben had been arrested and then we

Received a telephone call saying I think he’s got clothing he’s asked me to wash it he he tried to dump some of it um Jake was in the background of that call begging her not to call the police and the police attended and I instructed

That he was to be arrested at that point the caller had revealed that Jake had muddy clothes that he wanted to be washed or thrown away two brothers are now in custody in relation to The Disappearance of Jadon Parkinson and with no sign of her alive detectives pressed for a murder charge

For one of them Ben Blakeley so Ben Blakeley was charged with murder and his brother was charged with uh murder and perverting the course of Justice investigator Chris Ward and his team still do not know where Jaden’s body is based on the evidence so far they suspect she’s been killed her body

Placed in a suitcase transported by taxi to the outskirts of dkat and then buried somewhere nearby but with miles of open Countryside to search finding her seems an impossible task I then asked the RAF to do some uh aerial photography which they did because statistic Al people that are

Murdered are either buried put in water or set on fire in this case because we had the soil and the suitcase I believe she’d been buried so they did over head uh photography and identifi 10 areas where there had been significant soil moved in in in a relatively short space

Of time uh and they were areas of Interest now the areas of soil displacement that the team have identified could indicate that something or someone had had recently been buried there an intense police operation is underway to try to pinpoint the exact spot where Jaden’s body may have been

Hidden we’re whittling it down um to probably five or six areas the last area that we were concerned about if you like was the church in didcot because that was one area where there was evidence of a grave that looked like something we had walked around it but of course you

Would probably expect that to be the case in a graveyard the footprints surrounding the grave in All Saints Church Cemetery on the outskirts of dkat May initially have seemed insignificant to investigators but that’s about to change Ben’s younger brother Jake cooperates with police interrogators Jake then came forward and

Said he believed that the body of Jaden was in his uncle’s grave 15 days since Jaden was last seen alive police have information that her body has been buried in a graveyard in fact in a grave one belonging to Ben and Jake blakeley’s Uncle who had died in

2006 Chris and his team quickly get to work cordoning off the peaceful graveyard which is now a crime scene so we had to get an A number of authorities to even start uh Excavating in the grave all the graves were bubble wrapped to protect the other Graves around it um

The other thing my intelligence team did was they managed to find every single family member of every single uh person in that graveyard and the reason that was important was because it was on television and we needed to reassure people that it wasn’t a member of their

Family it was very difficult because it was about protecting the crime scene but also respecting the fact that that’s where people are buried the team have to work carefully to protect any forensic evidence that they may gather that could connect Ben and Jake to the scene so the tents

Erected the forensic apologist will guide search teams into the removal of the soil then the excavation starts taking place it didn’t take long before uh as they were Excavating you start to see the uh uh flesh and then it became became evident there was a a body that

Had been uh dumped into the grave her family and friends worst fears are now tragically confirmed I remember some phoning me tell me they found Jon’s body and I just sit being serious and I remember I just cried and cried and cried and when I got off the phone I just

Screamed and I fell to the floor when they found her she had a vest on that was it he taken all her jewelry all her clothes uh a bra cuz had met um underwire so that she couldn’t be found by metal detectors we never found Jaden’s CL

Clothing uh but he tied her legs up uh behind her back with her underwear he’ done that to put her in the suitcase and then he’d literally thrown her body out the suitcase to cover up her body he’s got that kind of narcissistic personality I think there’s evidence

There to say that he had some Psychopathic trays my body was recovered um it was taken to the Mory swabs are taken and then she was subject to a post for postmortem examination the body is very valuable forensically um and obviously a massive part in just in determining how that

Person uh lost their life you know what was the cause of death and then how the linkage between those factors to the Suspect I had to go and identify a body on the 20th of December and it was at 11:00 in the morning I remember sitting outside this green room and as I walk through the door I remember her being there I could see her at the corner of my eye and we

Walk around like that and I sat down and I couldn’t look up at Her and they identified her cuz we both got the same tattoo Jaden’s body shows signs of a brutal attack you could see the bruise on the side of her head where he’ stomped on her head she had marks around her neck when it turned out that he’d

Strangled her three times two times he brought her around the third time she didn’t come back she didn’t come around she was dead the results of the postmortem that she had suffocated um she had marks around her neck uh which were consistent with some grabbing her around the throat and the

Pathologists believed that she’d been fxated say she’ been strangled she also had quite significant bruis into her eyes so it would appear that she’d been assaulted as well uh prior prior to being suffocated Jaden was murdered on Wednesday the 3rd of December the same day that she disappeared the same day

She had met her ex bad Blakeley to discuss the fact that she was pregnant with his child he killed her and he you know he made a decision to do that but even after he’d killed her where we would expect to see fear guilt remorse none of that none of that at

All armed with all of the evidence the eyewitnesses the suitcase and the Spades covered in mud and the information from the postmortem on Jaden’s body police are finally able to fully support a murder charge against B Blakeley just a few weeks before his trial he spoke to a priest in the a

Chaplain actually was in the uh prison and said and gave him a letter and said I I was responsible for Jaden’s death so this was the first time that he’ taken any resp responsibility but there was a catch to the confession he was adamant that it

Was an accident he didn’t mean to do it but there was no chance he was getting away with that no Jaden’s family and friends suffer anguish and grief during the months leading up to the trial and just days before it begins Jaden’s father suffers a massive heart attack he dies in cour

Blakeley remains defiant when I first walked in he looked at me like really angry face and then he came up to the glass and started banging on the glass started shouting he was an animal from the start well in 302 years in the police and lots of court cases I’ve never ever seen

Anybody behave in the way in which he behav it was absolutely shocking um he was threatening Witnesses shouting being aggressive he set to stamp the uh Pro our prosecution Barrister um he was using really really a really foul language the worst sort of language you could imagine in court Blakeley continues to

Claim that what had happened to Jaden was accidental the prosecution places its evidence in front of a jury that has been asked to believe this was not murder he said it was an accident he had grabbed her around the throat she’d fallen off a bridge he had tried to

Resuscitate her but he couldn’t okay so it’s an accident then why didn’t you call an ambulance why didn’t you tell somebody what happened why didn’t you found the police cuz these are all significant things what you also can’t get away from and what what still wasn’t clear from

What he said to the chaplain was why had the uh the body recovery dogs indicated there would been a dead body in that Barn so I believe she was killed in the barn we found Jaden’s bracelet in the bushes uh which indicat she’s being dragged through the the undergrowth and

Then dragged across that field he didn’t want her to have the child he was angry he met her she went voluntarily to that Barn because they’d been there before and that’s where I think he had decided he was going to kill her and that’s where he strangled

Her lost his temper and then buried her Body it is confirmed in court that after killing Jaden and attempting to hide the body in bushes in the field close to the dilapidated Bond Blakeley then returned days later with the large Blue suitcase that he had borrowed from his grandparents house he had pushed their body inside it and

Ordered a taxi using a FAL name so he put her in the suitcase dragged it across the field the taxi driver picked him up helped him put that suitcase in the back of his car and he he he stated in court that it was very heavy and he commented it because

They both had to Hoy it in he was oh yeah M girlfriends Chu me out all my worldly goods and that wasn’t that was my baby in that suitcase Ben had also convinced his younger brother Jake to help dig a hole on top of their uncle’s existing grave

When questioned in his trial for perverting the course of Justice Jake reveals he didn’t know that the shallow gray was for Jaden instead he had been told they were burying a dead cat and a dog Ben’s younger brother Jake was eventually sentenced to 3 years in prison the judge said that he’d been

Guilty of an almost incredible degree of stupidity the jury in the murder trial of Ben Blakeley rejected his defense the evidence had been strong he is found guilty blakeley’s violent past and his behavior towards Jaden were immediately concerning you know they are red flags that that that that sorted to really worry

Me and the key evidence needed to ensure his conviction CCTV footage which plac him with her on the day that Jaden went missing the last CCTV that we had of Jaden with Ben was that afternoon when they got to didcot and walked to the station and then uh that’s the last time

She was seen alive but the murder of Jadon Parkinson and her unborn child Blakeley has given a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 years it’s not enough what he got was not enough he St a two lives he should be in there for life I think

That he’d he was losing control of Jaden because Jaden had moved into the hospital he wasn’t allowed in there and then of course she was pregnant uh she told him she was pregnant and I think then that was the and we know of course in domestic abuse cases this is a real

Factor in uh the next level of aggression and violence and he done this before with previous Partners who’ become pregnant I don’t want any other parent to go through what we went through is horrendous and and it breaks families I don’t want to hear his sory I don’t want his

Excuses cuz what he done I never forgive him ever I I just don’t know my whole life was stuck at that one point and has been for a long time Since she’s that kind of girl that would open her arms to anyone she sees the good in everyone and I’m never ever ever going to see her again cuz he took her away she just wanted a guy to love her she wanted to be a mom that’s what she

Wanted and she’d have been a really good Mom Yeah