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Sixty-seven children lived in Grenfell Tower when the west London block caught fire in June 2017. Eighteen of them never got a chance to grow up.

For many of the others, the traumatic loss, anxiety and PTSD that followed the disaster has shaped their childhoods and young adult lives.

They lost friends, family and everything they owned; spent months or years in hotels; and missed valuable school time.

In the seven years since the tragedy, more than 1,000 children and young people have been treated for mental health issues, according to the NHS Health and Wellbeing Hub, set up in the wake of Grenfell.

They were traumatised by what they saw or heard from friends and family, by having to cope with the loss of a friend or a neighbour, their natural sense of safety shattered on the night of the fire.

New referrals still come in each month.

This week, the Grenfell Inquiry releases its final report into the fire that cost 72 lives.

Sky News has spoken to some of the children who survived the tragedy. These are their stories.

Luana, 19: ‘I feel guilty that I’m here living’

Luana Gomes was 12 at the time of the fire. She managed to escape, with her sister and her pregnant mother, but they were in a coma for weeks. Her baby brother, Logan, was stillborn – the youngest victim of the disaster.

Now 19 and standing at the base of the tower, Luana can’t help but smile at some of the memories.

Pointing to where their flat was on the 21st floor, she recalls looking out the window and calling out to her friends in the park below.

“Every time my friends were down there I’d shout their names. I don’t think they could hear me,” she says, laughing.

She recalls how her friend Mehdi would knock on her door and be scared of her dog: “She was so tiny and sweet but he was terrified of her, which was funny.”

Eventually Mehdi won over his fear of the dog. He died in the fire along with his sister, brother and parents. He was eight.

Luana
Luana
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Luana as a little girl

Luana pauses, takes a deep breath and says: “I feel a bit guilty.

“When you think about your friends and family members and neighbours – I feel guilty that I’m here living and doing all this stuff, and they didn’t get the chance to live and do the stuff they wanted to at such a young age.”

The last seven years have been difficult. She has suffered from anxiety and depression. She missed weeks of school by being in hospital, and remembers being painfully behind when she went back to the classroom.

But she has found solace in dance. This month she goes to university to study it. It’s a cliche, she says, but “dance allows me to express my feelings in a way I can’t say in words”.

Luana
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Since surviving the fire, Luana has found solace in dance

She doesn’t want to speak about the little brother she lost, but shows us a message to him written years ago on the memorial wall.

The message says: “Logan. I love and miss you so, so, so much and know that your big sister is always thinking of you. RIEP Brother.”

Abem, 12: ‘It could have been me’

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‘I realised the burning building was my own home’

Abem Abraham’s memory of his first home is hazy, but he remembers watching the tower burn, and he remembers the best friend he lost.

As the fire raged, four-year-old Abem was taken down the smoke-filled stairs by his parents – then to a friend who lived nearby. He was safe.

But before falling asleep that night, he looked out of the curtains.

“I see a tall building block engulfed in flames. I don’t know what it was,” he recalls all these years later.

“And then later I realised that it was my own home.”

Abem
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Seven years after the Grenfell tragedy, Abem called on politicians to remove ‘deadly’ cladding

Abem

The cruellest part of the tragedy was losing his best friend, five-year-old Isaac Paulos.

“He was my best friend from my school at the time,” he says. “He was a bit older than me, like a brother. Like a big brother.”

Abem is a kind, smart and energetic boy who loves Formula One, basketball and football. He plays a Manchester United song on the piano, and proudly shows me his new PlayStation 5 – a present from his uncle for having done well at school.

Abem (R), who survived the Grenfell fire, with his friend Isaac, who was killed in the blaze
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Abem with his friend Isaac, who was killed in the blaze

But this 12-year-old also has a message for the politicians and developers.

“They need to remove the cladding off of every UK building because that cladding is deadly. When it comes to fire, it can destroy houses within minutes, within hours, like it did to Grenfell. Everyone, please, please remove it.”

He wants the children who died to be remembered for their “bright dreams”.

“One of them wanted to be a footballer, wanted to be an engineer, wanted to be an architect. All gone in one flame,” he says.

“It could have been me.”

Ines, 23: ‘I was known as Grenfell girl’

Embargoed to 1045 Thursday August 24 Grenfell survivor Ines Alves celebrates after collecting her GCSE results, at the Sacred Heart school in west London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Thursday August 24, 2017. See PA story EDUCATION GCSEs Grenfell. Photo credit should read: Lauren Hurley/PA Wire
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Ines sat her chemistry GCSE exam a day after the blaze. Pic: Lauren Hurley/PA

As her family ran from the burning building soon after the fire started, 16-year-old Ines Alves grabbed her textbooks.

The next morning, with her home a smouldering ruin, she sat her chemistry GCSE exam.

In the days after the tragedy that destroyed her home, Ines became known as “Grenfell girl”. She has spent much of the past years trying to escape that title.

Initially, she was a viral inspiration. In the months that followed the tragedy, she gave interviews about the disaster and updates on her grades and results to eager journalists.

Ines
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Ines became known as ‘Grenfell girl’, a title she wishes to escape

But it was the following year’s AS-level exams that triggered a mental health crisis.

“My biggest trauma was watching the building burning and people screaming, as I was revising for my GCSEs,” she says.

“So just revising and concentrating generally just kind of led me to dark places after that.

“When June came around it just kind of all came rushing back. And I had probably the biggest mental breakdown. It was just a horrible time.”

Embargoed to 1045 Thursday August 24 Grenfell survivor Ines Alves celebrates after collecting her GCSE results, at the Sacred Heart school in west London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Thursday August 24, 2017. See PA story EDUCATION GCSEs Grenfell. Photo credit should read: Lauren Hurley/PA Wire
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Pic: Lauren Hurley/PA

She ended up retaking the academic year. It was difficult seeing her friends go off to university without her – but she eventually found her own path.

For Ines, Grenfell is a story in her past, one she doesn’t want to define her future.

At university, she craved anonymity. One of her best friends didn’t realise it was her for over a year. “She just said to me, ‘that was you! What the hell?!'”

Now she’s graduated from Leeds with a degree in maths and has been travelling the world – Australia, Thailand and other parts of Asia.

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“Trying to live life like a normal young adult,” she says.

“I kind of don’t really like to live life by knowing what I’m going to do in a month’s time.”

Yousra, 19: ‘They’re not just numbers’

Yousra has survived the Grenfell blaze
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Yousra lived on Grenfell Walk, at the base of the tower

Yousra Cherbika is angry. She’s angry about the fire, the friends she lost, the home she can never return to – and the way she feels other children and young people were treated after the disaster.

She was 12 years old when she watched the tower burn, desperately calling her friend Nur Huda who lived inside to “get out”. But she couldn’t, and her whole family perished.

“They’re not just numbers. They’re not just ‘part of 72’,” she says.

“They have names, we love them. They had stories to tell. They had full lives which were cut short.”

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Grenfell Tower lit up for anniversary

Yousra and her family lived on Grenfell Walk, at the base of the tower. Less is known about those residents who managed to escape, but they also lost everything in the disaster.

“There’s parts of my childhood that I just block out and I don’t remember, like the year after the fire,” she says.

“I don’t remember living in a hotel. We were in one room, five of us, and my mum was pregnant.

“I had no home to go back to, no school to go back to. And even when we did go back to school, it was different, because there were empty chairs in our classrooms.”

Grenfell
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Green ribbon hangs from a lampost near the tower

She feels as though their support as ‘Walk’ residents was much worse.

“We didn’t know what we were entitled to at first, and so many people turned us away.”

Yousra has survived the Grenfell blaze
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Yousra wants to be a teacher

Today Yousra is a campaigner, a leader among local young people, volunteering in her spare time.

She is also training to be a primary school teacher, inspired by the form tutor who helped her through her lowest, darkest points in secondary school.

“I just stayed in bed and I just didn’t go into school. But she encouraged me. She motivated me.”

She feels outraged that seven years on, there is still cladding on buildings across the country.

“Why does it take 72 people to die for them to even think, oh, ‘maybe we should take cladding that might kill people?’

“And still, they haven’t done that.”

Watch Sky News’ special programme on Grenfell tonight at 8pm.

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Child sexual abuse victims ‘denied justice’ after compensation scheme scrapped over cost

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Child sexual abuse victims 'denied justice' after compensation scheme scrapped over cost

Sky News can reveal that the government has rowed back on a national compensation scheme for victims of child sexual abuse, despite it being promised under the previous Conservative administration.

Warning – this story contains references to sexual and physical abuse

A National Redress Scheme was one of 20 key recommendations made by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), but a Home Office report reveals the government has scrapped it because of the cost.

Marie, who is 71, suffered alleged sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at Greenfield House Convent in St Helens, Merseyside, between 1959 and 1962, and is still fighting for compensation.

Greenfield House Convent, where Marie says she was abused
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Greenfield House Convent, where Marie says she was abused

As soon as she arrived as a six-year-old, Marie says her hair was cut off, her name changed, and she experienced regular beatings from the nuns and students.

She claims a nun instigated the violence, including when Marie was held down so that her legs were “spread-eagled” as she was sexually abused with a coat hanger.

Merseyside Police investigated claims of abuse at the convent, but in 2016, a suspect died before charges could be brought.

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Marie has received an apology from the Catholic body that ran the home; she tried to sue them, but her claim was rejected because it was filed too long after the alleged abuse.

Marie is still fighting for compensation for the abuse she suffered
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Marie, 71, is still fighting for compensation for the abuse she says she suffered as a child

In February, ministers said the law would change for victims of sexual abuse trying to sue institutions for damages, which was a recommendation from the IICSA.

Previously, people had to make a civil claim before they were 21, unless the victim could prove a fair trial could proceed despite the time lapse.

Campaigners argued for the time limit to be removed as, on average, victims wait 26 years to come forward. Changes to the 1980 Limitation Act could lead to more people making claims.

Peter Garsden, President of The Association of Child Abuse Lawyers
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Peter Garsden, President of The Association of Child Abuse Lawyers

Civil cases ‘can take three to five years’

But Peter Garsden, president of the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers, worries that when it comes to historical abuse where the defendant is dead, institutions will still argue that it is impossible to have a fair trial and will fight to have the case thrown out of court.

Mr Garsden said it takes “between three and five years” for a civil case to get to trial.

He warned that claimants “can end up losing if you go through that process. Whereas the Redress Scheme would be quicker, much more straightforward, and much more likely to give justice to the victims”.

Victim awarded £10 compensation

Jimbo, who was a victim of abuse at St Aidan’s children’s home in Cheshire, took his case to the High Court twice and the Court of Appeal three times, but, after 13 years, all he ended up with was £10 for his bus fare to court.

Despite the Lord Justice of Appeal saying he believed that the abuse had occurred, Jimbo lost his claim because of the time limit for child sexual abuse claims to be made.

Read more from Sky News:
Call for Labour minister to resign over grooming gang remarks
PM says govt will fund further local grooming gangs inquiries if ‘needed’

Neither Marie nor Jimbo is likely to benefit from the removal of the time limit for personal injury claims, which is why Mr Garsden is calling on the government to implement a National Redress Scheme for victims of sexual abuse, as recommended by the IICSA.

Hundreds of millions paid to victims

The governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland have set up compensation schemes and paid hundreds of millions of pounds to victims.

In 2023, the then Conservative government said a similar scheme would be organised for England and Wales.

But the Home Office admitted in its Tackling Child Sexual Abuse: Progress Update that it “is not currently taking forward any further steps on the IICSA proposal for a separate, national financial redress scheme for all survivors of child sexual abuse”.

“In the current fiscal environment, this recommendation is very difficult to take forward,” it added.

For victims, the scheme was the last chance of compensation for a lifetime blighted by abuse.

“The money is about justice and about all the other people who have had to suffer this abuse,” Marie said.

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Five men arrested in connection with suspected terrorist plot

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Five men arrested in connection with suspected terrorist plot

Five men have been arrested on suspicion of the preparation of a terrorist act, according to the Metropolitan Police.

Counter-terror officers arrested the five men, four of whom are Iranian nationals, on Saturday, with all currently in police custody.

The Met said the arrests related to a “suspected plot to target a specific premises”.

In an update shortly after midnight, the force said: “Officers have been in contact with the affected site to make them aware and provide relevant advice and support, but for operational reasons, we are not able to provide further information at this time.”

It added officers were carrying out searches at a number of addresses in the Greater Manchester, London and Swindon areas in connection with the investigation.

It said those detained were:

• A 29-year-old man arrested in the Swindon area
• A 46-year-old man arrested in west London
• A 29-year-old man arrested in the Stockport area
• A 40-year-old man arrested in the Rochdale area
• A man whose age was not confirmed arrested in the Manchester area.

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Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “This is a fast-moving investigation and we are working closely with those at the affected site to keep them updated.

“The investigation is still in its early stages and we are exploring various lines of enquiry to establish any potential motivation as well as to identify whether there may be any further risk to the public linked to this matter.

“We understand the public may be concerned and as always, I would ask them to remain vigilant and if they see or hear anything that concerns them, then to contact us.

“We are working closely with local officers in the areas where we have made arrests today and I’d like to thank police colleagues around the country for their ongoing support.”

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

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Fourteen children arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after industrial fire in Gateshead

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Fourteen children arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after industrial fire in Gateshead

Fourteen children aged between 11 and 14 years old have been arrested after a boy died in a fire at an industrial site.

Northumbria Police said the group – 11 boys and three girls – were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after the incident in Gateshead on Friday. They remain in police custody.

Officers were called to reports of a fire near Fairfield industrial park in the Bill Quay area shortly after 8pm.

Emergency services attended, and the fire was extinguished a short time later.

Police then issued an appeal for a missing boy, Layton Carr, who was believed to be in the area at the time of the fire.

In a statement, the force said that “sadly, following searches, a body believed to be that of 14-year-old Layton Carr was located deceased inside the building”.

Layton’s next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers, police added.

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Detective Chief Inspector Louise Jenkins, of Northumbria Police, also said: “This is an extremely tragic incident where a boy has sadly lost his life.”

She added that the force’s “thoughts are with Layton’s family as they begin to attempt to process the loss of their loved one”, and asked that their privacy be respected.

A cordon remains in place at the site of the incident.

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