My daughter has been their returned alder shame for dream.

For over one hundred and fifty years, Blackpool has been Britain's playground by the sea.

What started as a modest Victorian resort on the Lancashire coast grew into something uniquely British.

It was a place where working class families could escape their factories in terrace streets for a week of sea air and entertainment.

In By two thousand and three, Blackpool was adapting to change package holidays to Spain and Beyond attempted many people away, leaving britain seaside resorts to fight for their place, but still Blackpool injured.

That year, Halloween fell on a Sunday.

Blackpool embraced the occasion with its usual flare shot windows displayed plastic skeletons and artificial cobwebs.

Pumpkins sat carved and glowing, and pubs organized Halloween Knights to entice locals and tourists alike.

The winter gardens hosted large themed parties and the streets filled with costumed revelers.

For a weekend, Blackpool was alive, with people moving between venues, their voices carrying above the noise of the arcades and the seafront.

But by the following a Monday, the first of November, the atmosphere had shifted.

The celebrations were over and the town returned to its quieter off season rhythm.

Decorations still clung to shop windows, but the crowds had thinned.

It was a work night and the streets were noticeably calmer.

That night, a teenage girl made her way into Blackpool's town Center.

She walked past the familiar outline of the tar and through streets she knew well, passing shop fronts still dotted with Halloween displays.

Security cameras picked her up at points along the way, recording her movements in short fragments of grainny footage, but the cameras didn't capture everything.

They showed her journey into the town Center, but not the journey home.

Somewhere beyond the Golden Mile, in the maze of streets that fan out from the seafront, she disappeared a work light when she went up with the friend and I'm not se quiz.

Can I give you a discripch in place?

She's got a shoulder out, dark brown hair with a fringe.

She's got a fringe and what was she wearing?

The black young per aunt were like white diamonds on the young hair what she called Charlie.

Charlie Dan Charlene Downes was born in Coventry on the twenty fifth of March nineteen eighty nine.

Her early childhood was spent in the Midlands, where her mother Karen, stayed at home to care for Charlene and her siblings, brother and two sisters.

Her father, Robert, was a former soldier who had served in the army before settling into civilian life.

He picked up various jobs, at one point working as a door man to support the family.

When Charlene was ten years old, the family decided to move to Blackpool, settling into a terraced house on Buchanan Street.

It was only a short walk from the north here, close enough to hear the sounds of the town center, but just far enough removed to maintain the quieter pace of residential life.

By two thousand and three, the household on Buchanan Street included Charlene's parents, her sister Becky, and her grandmother Jesse.

At fourteen, Charlene was a student at Saint George's High School in Marton navigating the difficult years between childhood and adulthood.

Like many teenagers in Blackpool, Charlene was drawn to the town center, the Golden Mile, the shops, the arcades.

It was a place that felt bigger and more exciting than the quiet streets where she lived, a place where she could feel independent.

Friends described Charlene as outgoing and sociable, somebody who made friends easily and was always comfortable talking to new people.

She was funny, loyal, and protective of those that she cared about.

Her mother described her as a bubbly girl who liked to laugh, west life and fashion.

But Charlene's home life wasn't without its challenges.

The family had been known to social services in Coventry and Walsall due to child protection concerns.

In Blackpool, agencies logged reports of violence in the home, lack of supervision, and incidents that raised concerns about potential sexual exploitation.

Charlene herself was in a difficult stage.

She'd been expelled from school and was trying to find her footing, no longer a child but not quite an adult.

In the months leading up to November of two thousand and three, her family noticed she seemed to be growing up quickly.

She was more focused on her clothes and appearance, and she often spoke about older friends.

It was a familiar your teenage mix of one thing to be seen as a mature whilst still being very much a child at home.

Her sister Becky would later reflect on how close they were.

I was involved in a car crash when I was nine and ended up on a live support machine.

When I came out of the comb I couldn't even tie my own shoelaces, but Charlene did everything for me.

She was so caring she helped me recover.

On the first of November two thousand and three, the day after Halloween, Charlene dressed in a black jumper with white diamonds and black trousers with sequins and three stripes at the bottom.

She and Becky headed into town for some shopping before stopping at McDonald's for dinner.

At around six forty five pm, the sisters bummed into their mother, Karen, on Church Street.

Karen was handing out fliers for an Indian restaurant where she worked.

They chatted briefly before Becky said that she was heading home.

Charlene's she was going to meet friends Natalie and Natasha.

She used a nearby phone box to call them and then waited with her mother until they arrived.

Karen watched on as Charlene and her friends walked towards the Winter gardens.

It was the last time she saw her daughter.

When Karen returned home from work that night, Charlene wasn't there.

She had a curfew of ten pm, but the hours passed with no sign of her.

Karen began calling her on Charlene's friends, but nobody had seen her.

As the night wore on, the absence became more alarming.

What had started as a normal evening in town was now the beginning of a search that would consume not only her family, but the entire town.

After Charlene Downs was reported missing, the search for her began.

More than thirty officers were assigned to the case, and police appealed to the public for their help.

In those early days, they said it was possible that Charlene was sleeping rough or staying with friends jut connections crossed different parts of town, but it was still unusual for her to remain out of touch for so long.

Charlene's mother recalled one instance where she went missing before, around two years earlier.

She said she had spent four days in Wolverhampton before returning home.

According to Karen, however, she didn't believe her daughter was staying with friends.

Nobody had seen her since the day after Halloween and nobody had heard from her.

Inspector Addie Thistlewaite addressed the press, dating we're growing concern for Charlene's health and well being as it's out of character for her to go missing for this length of time.

We would like to stress that she isn't in trouble and just want to know that she's safe.

We would appeal to anybody for any information about her whereabouts or for Charlene herself to contact police.

As the investigation unfolded, friends provided insight into her movements.

On the night she was last seen, Charline had spent part of her evening at the Winter Gardens with her friends Natalie and Natasha.

At around nine p m.

They said their goodbyes.

Natalie and Natasha were babysitting for her friend and Charlene told them that she was going home, but she wasn't.

Instead, she met up with another friend and together they went to the carousel bar on the North Pier.

They stayed there until around ten p m before leaving and walking towards Talbot Road.

According to this friend, they parted ways at around eleven p m.

With this information, police began scoring CCTV footage from around the town center.

They soon located a girl they believed to be Charlene, seen around nine p m on the junction of Dixon Road and Talbot Road.

The footage shooter hanging around the alleyway that runs between the shops, an area laned mostly with fast food takeaways, but after that the trail went cold.

As weeks turned two months, police continued to appeal for information.

Charlene's family also spoke publicly.

Her mother Karen, made a heartfelt play, I can't understand why Charlene hasn't been in touch.

The pain is unbearable.

It's breaking my heart not knowing where she is.

If Charlene reads or hears my appeal, I want her to know how much I miss and love her.

Her father, Robert, echoed the same fears.

The stress of not knowing where her beloved daughter is or whether she's in any danger is becoming unbearable.

Detectives chased every possible lead.

They visited Charlene's friends in Oldham, Denton and Wolverhampton.

They conducted door to door inquiries across Blackpool and beyond, and were even assisted by the National Missing Person's Helpline, but nobody had seen or heard from Charlene since the night she vanished.

In an effort to generate new Leeds police reliefed a picture of jeanes that were identical with the pair Charlene was wearing when she vanished.

By January, a new missing person poster was distributed to every police station in the country.

A small number of sidings were reported from different areas, but each one was investigated and ultimately ruled out.

Charlene's trail, it seemed, had vanished into thin air.

In May of two thousand and four, six months after Charlene went missing, detectives took an unusual step.

They started DNA's testing male volunteers in the area.

Detective Inspector Tony Harling explained, it may seem unusual to begin forensic testing in cases such as this where we have turned up no evidence from the missing person.

It's not standard practice, but we decided to act on information gained from interviews with the number of Charlene's known associates.

Those interviews with Charlene's friends revealed something deeply troubling.

They told police that Charlene had been having sex with foreign men who owned or worked at local takeaways.

But Charlene was only fourteen years old.

The reality was that she was being groomed and exploited, and she wasn't the only one.

According to one detective, she was one of a number of adolescent white girls who sometimes went at night to the alleyways behind the restaurants.

Here, these girls exchanged sex for goods.

Charlene and her friends even had a ra assistant derogatory named for it, Packy Alley.

It was where they went when they were hungry, needed cigarettes, alcohol, or just some credit for their mobile phones.

One of Charlene's friends later described how it started.

They were older than you, and you thought they were your friends.

It all seemed so glamorous and exciting.

Young girls were drawn to the flash cars, the money, the alcohol, free food, sometimes drugs, but the glamor quickly faded.

The investigation uncovered a pattern of systematic exploitation.

Vulnerable girls, some as young as eleven, were being targeted by men working in Blackpool's fast food outlets.

They were offered food, alcohol, or small amounts of money in exchange for sexual acts.

Police later described these takeaways as honeypot locations, places where predators could easily identify and exploit vulnerable teenagers.

One of Charlene's friends remembered a man who would offer her drugs, saying they would loosen her up.

She said he made her flesh crawl.

Another man constantly propositioned young girls, all while insulting them, calling white girls flags and comparing them unfavorably to Muslim women, who he said walked five steps behind their husbands.

The scale of abuse was staggering.

Police believed at least sixty girls had been caught up in the network.

A later report concluded young people were being abused and assaulted both inside and outside of premises by a number of takeaway owners and workers.

The wider environment made Blackpool particularly vulnerable to this kind of exploitation.

The town had high levels of poverty and cheap short term housing that meant people were constantly moving in and moving out.

By the early two thousands, Blackpool ranked as the twelfth poorest area in the country.

Around sixteen percent of children on the town's Child Protection Register were considered at risk of abuse, nearly doubled the national average.

Add that to the fact that Blackpool had always drawn in runaway children attracted by the bright lights of the Seaside Horn, and it created the perfect condition for predators.

Charlene's disappearance had exposed what was believed to be one of the first grooming networks identified in Britain on this scale.

It had been hiding in plain sight.

See mcgurty, who coordinated Mothers if sexually abused children, wasn't surprised.

She commented, there have always been shocking levels of abuse of children in this town, but before Charlene Downes went missing, it was completely swept onto the carpet.

In response, police formed a dedicated task force, Project Awaken, set up specifically to tackle child sexual exploitation in Blackpool, and detectives began to wonder if Charlene herself had been forced into sex work.

Over the course of the investigation, more than three thousand men were DNA tested, but nothing ever came of these tests, and Charlene remained missing.

The first anniversary of her disappearance came and went, then the second, her family were left trying to piece together their lives without knowing what had happened to their daughter.

Every so often someone was sure they'd seen her in Manchester, in a Burger king in London, but each sighting was investigated and each was ruled out.

Theories circulated.

Some people believed that Charlene had simply run away, others thought she must have been sold into sex trafficking, and many were convinced that she was dead.

At the two year anniversary, Detective Superintendent Paul Basheney made it clear that the case was still a priority.

He stated, it doesn't matter how many cases were working on.

She has an incident room all of her own and there are officers working on her case who have been with it from day one.

In the early hours of the seventh of March two thousand and six, police moved in.

Officers surrounded two flats, one in Blackpool, the other in nearby Fleetwood.

They waited in the darkness until the order came.

Doors were smashed open and two men were arrested.

Twenty eight year old he At Albaateak and forty nine year old Mohammed Ravishi Albataki, who was originally from Jordan, owned a fast food shop in Blackpool called Funny Boys.

Ravichi, who was born in Iran, was a former army sergeant.

He was also Abataki's business partner and also his landlord.

Charlene had been a familiar face at Funny Boys when other teenagers were in school.

She was often seen hanging around the town.

According to friends, she spent a lot of time in the fast food take away and she was always given free food as detective's dog.

Deeper disturbing stories began to surface.

A woman named Kirsty Fletcher worked at another fast food restaurant in Blackpool.

One day, she went to see her employer about wages.

While there, she overheard a group of men talking.

Among them was Albataki.

The men were discussing having sex with young white girls.

Albaateeki mentioned Charlene by name.

He laughed and said that she was kinky and very small, and he added a chilling comment that Charlene had gone into the kebabs.

But Kursey wasn't the only one to hear things.

David Cassidy, a local arcade owner, was a friend of Albataki and his brother Terake.

After a falling out between the Brothersterake had confided in David with everything will happened to Charlene Downes.

He said to him that he knew something that would get my brother sent away.

He was in tears as he spoke.

According to David, Drake said that his brother had strangled Charlene.

There was a lot of blood, he told him.

He said that Charlene had been killed, chopped up and disposed of.

When Albategi found out his brother had spoken, he threatened David, warning that he'd be dealt with if he told anybody.

He even offered him an interest free loan arranged through Revie She to keep him quiet, but eventually David went to police.

He later explained, I had heard rumors of young girls getting into Van's and not being seen until the next day.

I'd heard people say that Ravechi was seen in bed with three young girls.

One of them was Charlene Downes.

I was told she'd had enough and was going to go to the police, and that's what triggered something in their heads.

They weren't going to let that happen.

Detectives soon spoke with Alba Taki and Riveshi.

Both men insisted they had never seen Charlene in person, and the only time they had any knowledge of her was through the missing person posters.

They denied any involvement in her disappearance.

Be an indictable with the woice.

All of us are nice, all of us who haven't done Would you consider yourself to be a good friend or us easible?

Dead?

Did?

Good?

Friendly?

Yeah?

He's a good friend.

Yeah.

I wouldn't say it's about this thinks a person?

No, no, no, no, I mean there is nothing to hide all of us.

Police weren't convinced.

They installed covert listening devices in both Albataki and Raveachi's flats and even in Ravechi's car.

What they captured was deeply troubling.

The recordings were often fragmented and difficult to interpret.

The detective said that certain phrases and exchanges suggested involvement in Charlene's disappearance.

On one tape, Ravichi was heard expressing disbelief that police were investigating the case.

In his words, Charlene was not even from a decent or important family.

On another, he apparently said eat the body.

Albaategy could be heard saying he had killed while talking about Charlene.

In another recording, Ravichi described a gruesome act.

Her big bone went into the machine as well.

Albateki responded her bones inside the machine.

Ravigi confirmed yes.

The conversation suggested a disturbing sequence of events that Albaateki had killed Charlene and Ravichi had assisted in disposing of the body.

There were repeated references to a kebab machine, and at one point Ravichi spoke about checking the burial place.

Later his tone broke and he sobbed, I can't cope.

The recordings alone were not straightforward evidence.

They were difficult to interpret and often opened a challenge, but in combination with witness statements and the broader investigation, they painted a disturbing picture.

The day after the arrest, Albatake was charged with murder and Ravachi with assisting an offender.

The trial began in May of two thousand and seven at Preston Crowancourt.

Prosecutor Tim Holroyd opened by telling the jury that Charlene had been groomed by one or both of the defendants.

He described the network of young white girls who were drawn into Blackpool's fast food shops where they were sexually exploited by older men.

The prosecutor outlined the witness testimony, the recorded conversations and other pieces of evidence.

He argued that Albateiki was the person who killed Charlene and that Ravechi had helped in disposing of her body.

The defense claimed that both men were innocent.

They argued that the witnesses were unreliable, that the recordings were too difficult to decipher, and that the police had overstepped their expertise.

Defense attorney John Bromley Davenport even suggested that Detective Sergeant gene b Sant was unqualified to interpret the tapes given how closely she had been involved with the case from the start.

Testimony from Detective Sergeant Stephen Moorcraft detailed the nation wide search for Charlene.

He said there had been more than seventy reported sightings across the UK and abroad.

Every report had been investigated, but none yielded any results.

Miricroft noted that there was no record of Charlene Howd having worked, claimed benefits, used NHS services, or paid rent or utility bills in the years following her disappearance.

The prosecution then presented fifty two digital audio tapes collected during the surveillance police had monitored the suspects twenty four hours a day from a dedicated room at Blackpool's police station, carefully cataloging every conversation whennesses also included David Cassidy, a local arcade owner, who recounted what Tariq had told him about his brother.

Tarik had confided that Abatiki strangled Charlene and then dismembered her body.

Cassidy testified he told me she was strangled.

As Cassidy gave his testimony, Charlene's mother, Karen, was overwhelmed and fled from the public gallery in tears.

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Get this exclusive podcast only off or now at air doctorpro dot com that is ai r d OSA t r p r O dot com using the promo code morbidology defense attorney Ian Goldran attacked Cassidy's credibility.

He suggested that the conversation never occurred, pointing to Cassidy's past criminal record for dishonesty dating back to when he was seventeen.

Goldran asked why Cassidy had waited months to go to the police.

He responded, I had to determine whether it was here sayer gossip.

The jury were then sent off to deliberate.

By the end of the first day, they hadn't reached a verdict.

This continued for eleven more day days.

Unable to come to an agreement, the jury was discharged and a retrial was ordered.

In April the next year, an unexpected development shocked everybody involved in the case.

The charges against Yad Albatik and Mohammed Ravishi were dropped.

Lakeshier Police faced severe criticism, accused of having lied and of pursuing the case with an agenda.

After the collapse, serious errors with the surveillance evidence had been identified, raising questions with the Crime Prosecution Service.

On top of his, concerns were raised about David Cassidy, the lead witness.

His reliability was called into question and without sufficient credible evidence, prosecutors were forced to offer no case.

Both men were then released from costady.

Charlene's family were said to be devastated.

Her mother Karen said part of me went with her.

She didn't deserve to die.

Ravigi meanwhile described the case against him as shameful and announced plans to sue the police.

Both he and Albatigo were later awarded two hundred and fifty thousand pounds in compensation for the time they had spent behind bars.

In the aftermath, it was announced at Lancashire Police would be investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The inquiry would focus on an alleged abuse of process by officers and the disappearance of a key tape from the surveillance.

While the investigation continued, Charlene's parents began organizing a memorial service for their daughter at Saint John's Church in Blackpool.

They also planned to place a memorial bench in Stanley Park, one of Charlene's favorite places.

Her father, Robert, took on a fund raising challenge, cycling the Northwest coast to raise money for the memorial.

He stated, it's been really difficult, but this has given me something to concentrate on.

It's frustrating because you can't actually do anything.

You have to just wait around and hope you hear some news.

But this has given me something I can throw myself into, something I can actually do that's not out of my hands.

The memorial service was held on the fourteenth of September.

Karen and Robert commented that they were beginning to accept that Charlene was dead.

They hope the service would allow those who knew her to celebrate her life and look forward with hope.

Led by Reverend Helen Hornby, the service included heartfelt eulogies from the family.

The reverend then remarked, the best memorial to Charlene will not be in marble or stone, but in this smile and sunny nature that so many of her family, friends and neighbors have described so well.

Following the service, four white doves were released in front of the church.

The next month, the memorial bench in Stanley Park was unveiled.

Then, in March of two thousand and nine, Charlene's sister Emma was charged with the racially aggravated assault against Albateake's brother to Rake at Black Pulse Club, Sanouk.

She had slapped him and then made racial remarks.

Dreke said to her, it's got nothing to do with me.

Emma pleaded guilty the lesser charge of common assault.

She claimed that during the incident to rake it spad in her face, first prompting her reaction.

In October of two thousand and nine, the Independent Police Complaints Commission concluded its investigation into the handling of the case.

The report identified a series of failings by Lancashire Police, citing a strategic and tactical failure in the management of audio and video material.

Proper records hadn't been maintained, evidence was incompletely transcribed, and the overall integrity of the material hadn't been insured.

The use of untrained and inexperienced officers was also criticized, as well as the handling of a human intelligence source.

The report recommended that one officer face a disciplinary hearing, another receive a written warning, and five more be given words of advice.

Assistant Chief Constable Andy Cook said, I want to reassure the family and our local communities that we have learned lessons from this and have moved on quickly in terms of handling such information.

For Charlene's mother, Karen, the findings offered little comfort.

She said, we feel badly let down by the police and the Crime Prosecution Service.

We're no further on, We're back to square one.

There's no closure.

Following the report, protests erupted from the far right group the English Defense League, known for its anti Islam rhetoric.

The EDL claimed to be demonstrating for justice for Charlene Downes when they gathered at Saint Chad's Headland.

Their presence inflamed tensions in Blackpool, drawing media attention and further complicating an already fraud situation.

Meanwhile, in twenty ten, the fast food takeaway previously known as Funny Boys returned to public scrutiny.

Renamed Mister Baines, its license was revoked by Blackpool counsul Councilors noted that crime levels of the premises were three times higher than the other takeaways in the town center.

Allegations of inappropriate behavior with young girls persisted, and the takeaway was still operated by Mohammed Ravishi and Iad Albataki.

The men contested the license revocation, claiming of vendetta against them, despite no convictions in the connection to Charlene's disappearance.

Investigations revealed that in the twelve months leading up to the thirty first of March, the takeaway accounted for sixty five percent of all reported incidents across four late night takeaways on Dixon Road.

Nine violent offenses were recorded during that period, including mass brawls and disorderly behavior, while CCTV coverage was found to be non functional.

Multiple young girls reported mating Albataki at the takeaway, where they were allegedly supplied with alcohol and cocaine.

Solicitor Anthony Horn, representing Blackpool Police at the licensing hearings, stated, one of our concerns is this pattern of young girls being attracted to the premises because they're open late and being supplied with alcohol and cocaine.

There's no other takeaway in Blackpool that comes anywhere near this level of incidents.

During the hearing, six young females came forward to detail separate incidents of decent behavior by Albatiki and Raveshi.

The girls, aged between thirteen and fifteen, described being groomed, touched, and given gifts in exchange for sex.

A photograph was even presented showing Albataki with the fourteen year old girl sitting on his knee.

In October of two thousand and nine, the family of a fifteen year old girl reported that Albatiki had supplied her with drugs, prompting the police to serve him with the warning notice under the Child Abduction Act prohibiting contact with girls under sixteen.

Records also revealed that Albatiki had been arrested on suspicion of rape on five separate occasions over the past three or four years.

Albatiki testified during the hearing defending himself, I've been arrested five times for it, but never charged, and each of the five times came after the Charlene Dawns case.

The police don't like me because I've proved they're corrupt.

They have so called intelligence reports on me, but they're not right.

We're talking about a conspiracy.

At the time, police had kept details of the Grimming Ring quiet, amid claims that the report had been suppressed for reasons of political correctness.

An officer speaking anonymously said there was a reluctance to acknowledge the specific offend their profile because ninety six percent of Blackpool's population is white.

Ultimately, following the hearing, the men were informed that the takeaway could no longer operate past eleven pm.

In May of twenty eleven, yet Albatiki once again faced legal consequences.

He was convicted of attacking his ex girlfriend, eighteen year old Natasha Mottram in court.

Natasha accused him of using alcohol and cocaine to manipulate her and her friends, keeping them hanging around his takeaway after she left him for a new boyfriend.

Albatiki head buttered her.

The victim told the court, he's a horrible man.

I don't want to go into Blackpool in case I see him.

He's so intimidating.

I have had nightmares about him and I can't sleep properly.

Albataki was sentenced to twenty weeks in jail.

The takeaway was eventually sold in July of two thy eleven, closing a chapter on the premises that had been linked to multiple allegations of grooming and exploitation.

Towards the end of that year, Detective Superintendent jan Bacint resigned amid criticism of her handling of the Charlene Dawns investigation.

Joan had been solely responsible for bogging Albataki's home.

A tribunal later cleared her name and confirmed she could rejoin the force, although she chose not to.

She subsequently sued them for five hundred thousand pounds, with her Police Federation representative describing her as having been made a scapegoat for the failed murder inquiry.

Charlene's family continued to struggle with the aftermath.

Her sister Becky found it impossible to move on and eventually gave up her job.

She reflected, if I let go of that little feeling of hope or crack, I carry the guilt around with me constantly.

If I didn't leave her that day, would it have happened?

It's on my mind.

Twenty four to seven, Robert, Charlene's father, went off sick, while Karen, her mother, quit her job as a club promoter in Blackpool.

In February of twenty twelve, Charlene's older brother, Robert was arrested after punching Ravati in the face and shouting that's for my sister.

He pleaded guilty due charge of putting a person in fear of violence by harassment and was sentenced to twelve months in jail, suspended for two years.

Karen was also handed a harassment warning after distributing flowers implicating Albatakean Ravachi and her daughter's disappearance.

She refused to sign the notice, insisting she would rather go to prison.

I'm very upset.

I'm Charlene's mother and I should be allowed to protest peacefully.

The years continued to drag past despite the controversy.

Police remained convinced that they had arrested the right men, but others weren't so sure.

At the ten year anniversary, a digitally eaged photograph if Charlene was released.

It was handed to her mother.

She smiled faintly and stated, it's really lovely being faced with a photo of what she would look like now.

She called her daughter beautiful.

She said she missed her every single day.

But behind the cameras, behind the carefully polished words, there was another truth.

Charlene's parents had aligned themselves with the far right.

They allowed her story to be paraded as a symbol of so called braun on white abuse.

They became cherished icons of the British National Party.

But they sat on a hollow throne because in twenty thirteen, the truth finally began to surface.

Social workers had long believed that Charlene was repeatedly exposed to abuse, not only outside the home, but inside it, middle aged white men welcomed in by her own father.

According to police documents, when Charlene was nine, she and another girl alleged that they were being sexually abused by a man her parents allowed to take them to school.

He was charged with rape, but the case fell apart when the other girl failed to give evidence.

Then, instead of protecting her, Charlene's parents allowed a convicted rapist to visit the house regularly and have unsupervised access to Charlene.

Robert was strung wrongly.

Advised by Social services not to allow the man inside the house, he ignored them.

A witness eventually told police they saw the man fondling Charlene in the house.

At twelve years old, Charlene was discovered by a council worker in a downstairs bedroom.

She was dressed in a skimpy nightgown, a sixty year old man was zipping up his trousers.

This incident was reported to Social Services, but it was decided not to pursue the matter further due to lack of evidence and a lack of cooperation from Charlene's family.

Her parents described it as a misunderstanding.

Robert even blamed the council worker for being too nosy.

Her parents described the man as a lovely, nice old man who was probably just adjusting his trousers.

By then, Charlene was slipping further into danger.

She was often seen at the Salvation Army soup kitchen.

Local spotted her dancing for grown men outside pubs.

Her parents brushed it off, saying she simply loved music, but men around her weren't interested in music.

A forty year old man admitted he paid Charlene to perform a sex act on him.

Another man in his fifties described the thirteen year old as his girlfriend.

At the time of her disappearance, another sexual predator was living in the family home.

His name was Ray Munroe.

Robert had met him at a pub and invited him to stay.

Monroe was a convicted sexual offender, having pleaded guilty to crimes against two ten year old girls.

He even admitted to touching Charlene, but he wasn't the only one.

Over the course of Charlene's short life, as many as sixteen convicted men raped, bists, abusers, violent offenders had passed through the Downs home.

Child protection officials wrote report after report they kept notes, but notes don't protect children.

Charlene was labeled vulnerable to exploitation even as an infant.

Twice social services decided she should be taken into care.

The first time there was no place available.

The second time a place was found, but her parents fought to keep her and they won.

At eleven, a hospital report described signs of sexual abuse.

In her last two years alive, Charlene made thirteen separate visits to a sexual health clinic, and then when she disappeared, her mother waited two days before reporting her missing.

It later emerged that just a week earlier, Charlene had been given forty pounds by a white man described by police as a compulsive, perverted predator living in a squalid flat filled with pornography.

That man was Ray Monroe, the same man who was living with the Downs family, the same man who saw Charlene on the night she disappeared.

Police eventually drew up a list of one hundred men of interest in her case, one hundred men who could have potentially abused her.

It's safe to say that Charlene was failed by every single adult who might have protected her, failed by her parents, failed by social workers, failed by police, and prosecutors whose incombetence let her case collapse in court.

Over the years, detectives kept pushing.

A one hundred thousand pounds reward was offered for information.

In twenty sixteen, they released fresh ECTV from the day that Charlene vanished, hoping a clearer view and a wider audience might finally shake loose a name, a detail, a memory.

The following year, a fifty one year old man was arrested on suspicion of murder.

He was never publicly identified, and after questioning, he was released without charge.

Presumably that man was Ray Monroe.

In two thousand and one, tragedy hit the family once more.

Charlene's brother, Robert died of an accidental hermin overdose.

He left behind four children, Another loss, another absence that couldn't be explained away.

Today, three theories dominate the case.

The first that Charlene was killed by Iad Albatachian disposed of through a mincing machine.

Experts have long caution that forcing a body through commercial equipment without leaving detectable DNA would be highly unlikely.

The second that Charlene was killed by Ray Munroe, a known predator who had both opportunity and proximity, and who admitted to indecently touching Charlene.

The third that her parents were involved.

Even now some still point the finger at them.

Police say that both were interviewed and rolled out.

What remains is that Charlene is still missing.

There is circumstantial evidence that she's dead, but no forensic evidence ties her fate to any single person, no body, no definite of answers, just a case file that grows older each year.

And so we end where we began with a fourteen year old girl in a seaside town, A girl who looked younger than her age, who liked music and fashion, who joked with friends and wandered the bright streets that promised excitement and delivered danger.

Charlene was vulnerable, marked early as at risk, and then repeatedly left at risk by adults who invited harm into her life, by systems that documented warnings but failed to act, and by an investigation that stumbled when it mattered the most.

Well, that is it for this episode of Morbidology.

As always, thank you so much for listening and I'd like to say a massive thank you to my newest supporter up on Patreon.

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Until next time, take care of yourself, stay safe, and have an amazing week.