Baby P killer Jason Owen lied to enrol at Croydon College (From Croydon Guardian)

Baby P killer Jason Owen lied to enrol at Croydon College

2:10pm Tuesday 11th August 2009

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A sadistic killer of Baby P lied his way on to a Croydon College course while awaiting trial for his part in the death of the little boy, the Croydon Guardian can reveal.

Jason Owen, 37, signed on to a 13-week City and Guilds construction course without telling the Wellesley Road college bosses on his application form he was on bail for allowing his brother to torture the 18-month-old boy to death.

Owen, who was born Jason David Barker but changed his name by deed poll, can finally be identified along with his brother Steven Barker, 33, and Tracey Connelly, 28, for their role in the killing of Baby Peter in Haringey in August 2007.

Baby Peter was subjected to months of abuse in his short life at the hands of Barker.

The blonde haired, blue-eyed toddler had a catalogue of more than 50 different injuries including dog bites, bruising, broken bones and lacerations to his hands and face.

All three were convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child in November last year.

Barker received a 12-year sentence.

Connelly, Baby P’s mother, was sentenced to ten years and Owen received six years in prison.

Unlike both Barker and Connelly, Owen was released on bail which is when he enrolled on the Croydon College course.

During his course, Owen allegedly boasted to a fellow student he had a court case coming up at the Old Bailey.

The student told the Sun newspaper: "We looked up from our mugs of tea and someone asked him what it was about.

"He just replied very coolly 'It's a big, serious one - you'll know about it when it happens. Me and a friend tortured someone. But we got caught because we went a bit too far.'”

A source at the college said: “Jason Owen did not declare his previous convictions or his involvement in the Baby P case in his application.

"Had he have done so he would not have been allowed to attend the college.”

Owen was a crack-addicted arsonist who had a string of criminal convictions, who also had links to the National Front, according to the Daily Mail.

He and his brother Barker were described by their father David Price as ‘monsters’ and Owen was accused of torturing his younger brother with cigarettes as they were growing up.

The pair were arrested by police after they locked their elderly grandmother Hilda Barker in a cupboard in 1995 and demanded she change her will. She died in a care home just months later and the charges were droppped.

A former friend of the two men told The Sun: “When they were apart they were bad enough, but put them together and they became pure evil.”

Sentencing Owen, Judge Stephen Kramer QC said he had shown: “a sickening and descending loss of personal responsibility.”

The judge added: “You were more concerned about your own situation and about the horror of what was happening to Peter being discovered than taking steps to protect him.”

A Croydon College spokesman said he was unable to comment on individual students.

• Were you on a course with Jason Owen? Let us know by email here, phone the newsdesk on 020 8330 9555 or leave a comment below.