Jack Hilding at the field where his son died and was left undiscovered in Biddenden for four months

by Chris Hunter

The father of a 23-year-old man discovered dead on an electricity pylon in a field has spoken about the missed chances to find his son.

Jack Hilding went missing in October 2012, but a full-scale police search of fields around Biddenden where he was lying failed to spot him.

It was several months before the body of the scrap metal collector, of Reed Avenue, Canterbury, (pictured below right) was discovered – and not by police.

A day scouring the land around Woolpack Corner, near Biddenden, where father-of-one Jack had been staying with his grandfather, revealed no sign of him – or no sign that police managed to spot.

For dad Jack Hilding Snr, from Staplehurst, the day was the start of a winter of doubt and worry - yet the fruitless search had offered hope his son would be found alive.

Mr Hilding said: "Statistics say that if any harm has come to someone it will be in a certain radius of where they went missing. The commander came to me at the end of the day.

"She said 'I'm confident and happy that no harm has come to your son. He's not out there'."

But Jack was out there, only a few hundred metres from where they stood, halfway up an electricity pylon in a field where he had died a few days earlier.

Why had he not been found? Mr Hilding believes the search was done half-heartedly, because police viewed his son as "a gypsy boy with a little bit of petty form" and thought he was on the run elsewhere.

It was another three-and-a-half months before his decomposing body would be found – not by police, but by an engineer called to investigate an electrical fault.

Jack said: "I went to have a look at the site with this officer. I said 'how come you missed him?' She said, 'I know'.

"Other people have said 'I can't see how they didn't see him’. There was clear visibility. There was a helicopter in the sky and police were in that field."

Jack Hilding and partner Jemma Burton and their baby, also called Jack

Mr Hilding said mistakes were made – that nearby homeowners were not questioned, and officers did not ask to view their CCTV.

He thought back to how dogs had not been used and how handlers had discarded his idea of using Jack's shoes to pick up the scent.

He said: "I want to point out the incompetence that went on – what should have been done to narrow the search."

Kent Police said they were unable to comment in full on Mr Hilding's complaints.

A statement said: "This is a tragic case involving the loss of a young man's life. It is understandably a very upsetting time for his family and we continue to have contact with them while a report is prepared for the coroner.

"Because HM Coroner has not yet held the full inquest into Mr Hilding's death, it would be inappropriate for Kent Police to make any further comment at this stage."