Charlene Downes: Parents of 14-year-old girl who went missing 20 years ago want end to ‘nightmare’
The parents of 14-year-old Charlene Downes, who disappeared 20 years ago today, have appealed for anyone who knows what happened to her to “end their nightmare” and help bring them justice.
Police have issued a fresh appeal for information about what happened to Charlene on the anniversary of her disappearance in Blackpool.
In the years since she went missing, police have uncovered evidence that Charlene had been the victim of child sexual exploitation after being groomed by a gang.
She was last seen after saying goodbye to a friend late at night near an alleyway in the Lancashire town.
Charlene Downes disappeared 20 years ago. Pic: Lancashire Police
On the anniversary of her disappearance, her mother Karen described Charlene as a “bubbly, cheeky teenager with an infectious smile” who loved animals and music.
She appealed for help from the community: “All we want is answers. Obviously somebody out there knows something and we want somebody to come forward and please end our nightmare.
“After 20 years it is terrible. We just live in hope, we hope and pray that something will happen and we can get justice or closure for Charlene.”
Charlene’s father Bob said the last 20 years had been “very traumatic” for the family.
Charlene was described as a ‘bubbly, cheeky teenager’. Pic: Lancashire Police
A year after Charlene disappeared, information was passed to police that led to the launch of a murder inquiry.
Two men were charged in connection with Charlene’s murder but a jury was unable to reach a verdict. A retrial later collapsed.
Prosecutors had claimed during the case in 2007 that Charlene’s body had been dismembered and disposed of at a kebab shop in Blackpool.
CCTV footage of Charlene Downes (R)
Lancashire Police faced criticism over its handling of the case following an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the body subsequently replaced by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
The force continues to have a dedicated team conducting what it says is one of the largest investigations in its history.
Det Chief Supt Pauline Stables, the force’s head of crime, told Sky News: “I think it is really important that we never give up hope.
“There’s got to be somebody out there who knows what’s happened and now’s the time to come forward and tell us.
“You may be in a position where at the time you didn’t feel strong enough to come forward, there might be reasons of your own vulnerability that you couldn’t come forward and tell us.
“Twenty years on, we hope that now is the time for those people who have got answers to tell us. It is not too late.”
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Charlene was captured on multiple CCTV cameras in the hours before her disappearance, the last image was of her smiling in a restaurant on the pier.
Police say the investigation into her disappearance has generated nearly 16,000 lines of inquiry in the last 20 years.
A reward of £100,000 remains on offer for information leading to the prosecution of her killer or the recovery of her body.
Zoe Ball is leaving her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show after six years.
The 53-year-old, who recently lost her mother to cancer, will present her last show on Friday, 20 December.
Ball leaves Wogan House with her replacement, Scott Mills. Pic: PA
She said she was leaving to focus on family, but will remain part of the Radio 2 team and will give further details next year.
Announcing the news on her Tuesday show, she said: “After six years of fun times alongside you all on the breakfast show, I’ve decided it’s time to step away from the early alarm call and start a new chapter.
“You know I think the world of you all, listeners, and it truly has been such a privilege to share the mornings with you, to go through life’s little ups and downs, we got through the lockdown together, didn’t we?
“We’ve shared a hell of a lot, the good times, the tough times, there’s been a lot of laughter. And I am going to miss you cats.”
Scott Mills will replace Ball on the breakfast show following her departure next month.
“Zoe and I have been such good friends now for over 25 years and have spent much of that time as part of the same radio family here at Radio 2 and also on Radio 1,” he said.
“She’s done an incredible job on this show over the past six years, and I am beyond excited to be handed the baton.”
Hugging outside the BBC building on the day of the announcement, Ball said she was “really chuffed for my mate and really excited about it”.
Ball was the first female host of both the BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 breakfast shows, starting at the Radio 1 breakfast show in 1998, and taking over her current Radio 2 role from Chris Evans in 2020 after he left the show.
She took a break from hosting her show over the summer, returning in September.
Ahead of her stint in radio, Ball – who is the daughter of children’s presenter Johnny Ball – co-hosted the BBC’s Saturday morning children’s magazine show Live & Kicking alongside Jamie Theakston for three years from 1996.
She has two children, Woody and Nelly, with her ex-husband, DJ and musician Norman Cook, known professionally as Fatboy Slim.
Ball said in her announcement her last show towards the end of December will be “just in time for Christmas with plenty of fun and shenanigans”.
“While I’m stepping away from the Breakfast Show, I’m not disappearing entirely – I’ll still be a part of the Radio 2 family, with more news in the New Year,” she added.
“I’m excited to embrace my next chapter, including being a mum in the mornings, and I can’t wait to tune in on the school run!”
Helen Thomas, head of Radio 2, said: “Zoe has woken up the nation on Radio 2 with incredible warmth, wit and so much joy since January 2019, and I’d like to thank her for approaching each show with as much vim and vigour as if it were her first. I’m thrilled that she’ll remain an important part of the Radio 2 family.”
Mills, 51, got his first presenting role aged just 16 for a local station in Hampshire, and went on to present in Bristol and Manchester, before joining BBC Radio 1 in 1998.
He’s previously worked as a cover presenter on Radio 2, but this is his first permanent role on the station.
UK
More prisoners are being transferred to less secure jails to tackle overcrowding crisis, Sky News understands
The prison service is starting to recategorise the security risk of offenders to ease capacity pressures, Sky News understands.
It involves lowering or reconsidering the threshold of certain offenders to move them from the closed prison estate (category A to C) to the open estate (category D) because there are more free cell spaces there.
Examples of this could include discounting adjudications – formal hearings when a prisoner is accused of breaking the rules – for certain offenders, so they don’t act as official reasons not to transport them to a lower-security jail.
Prisoners are also categorised according to an Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) status. There are different levels – basic, standard and enhanced – based on how they keep to the rules or display a commitment to rehabilitation.
Usually ‘enhanced’ prisoners take part in meaningful activity – employment and training – making them eligible among other factors, to be transferred to the open estate.
Insiders suggest this system in England and Wales is being rejigged so that greater numbers of ‘standard’ prisoners can transfer, whereas before it would more typically be those with ‘enhanced’ status.
Open prisons have minimal security and allow eligible prisoners to spend time on day release away from the prison on license conditions to carry out work or education.
The aim is to help reintegrate them back into society once they leave. As offenders near the end of their sentence, they are housed in open prisons.
Many of those released as part of the early release scheme in October after serving 40% of their sentence were freed from open prisons.
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Overcrowding in UK prisons
They were the second tranche of offenders freed as part of this scheme, and had been sentenced to five years or more.
Despite early release measures, prisons are still battling a chronic overcrowding crisis. The male estate is almost full, operating at around 97% capacity.
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Sky News understands there continue to be particular pinch points across the country.
Southwest England struggled over the weekend with three space-related ‘lockouts’ – which means prisoners are held in police suites or transferred to other jails because there is no space.
One inmate is believed to have been transported from Exeter to Cardiff.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The new government inherited a prison system on the point of collapse. We took the necessary action to stop our prisons from overflowing and to protect the public.
“This is not a new scheme. Only less-serious offenders who meet a strict criteria are eligible, and the Prison Service can exclude anyone who can’t be managed safely in a category D prison.”
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