Speaker 1: My daughter has been their returned alder shame for dream.
Speaker 1: For over one hundred and fifty years, Blackpool has been
Speaker 1: Britain's playground by the sea. What started as a modest
Speaker 1: Victorian resort on the Lancashire coast grew into something uniquely British.
Speaker 1: It was a place where working class families could escape
Speaker 1: their factories in terrace streets for a week of sea
Speaker 1: air and entertainment. In By two thousand and three, Blackpool
Speaker 1: was adapting to change package holidays to Spain and Beyond
Speaker 1: attempted many people away, leaving britain seaside resorts to fight
Speaker 1: for their place, but still Blackpool injured. That year, Halloween
Speaker 1: fell on a Sunday. Blackpool embraced the occasion with its
Speaker 1: usual flare shot windows displayed plastic skeletons and artificial cobwebs.
Speaker 1: Pumpkins sat carved and glowing, and pubs organized Halloween Knights
Speaker 1: to entice locals and tourists alike. The winter gardens hosted
Speaker 1: large themed parties and the streets filled with costumed revelers.
Speaker 1: For a weekend, Blackpool was alive, with people moving between venues,
Speaker 1: their voices carrying above the noise of the arcades and
Speaker 1: the seafront. But by the following a Monday, the first
Speaker 1: of November, the atmosphere had shifted. The celebrations were over
Speaker 1: and the town returned to its quieter off season rhythm.
Speaker 1: Decorations still clung to shop windows, but the crowds had thinned.
Speaker 1: It was a work night and the streets were noticeably calmer.
Speaker 1: That night, a teenage girl made her way into Blackpool's
Speaker 1: town Center. She walked past the familiar outline of the
Speaker 1: tar and through streets she knew well, passing shop fronts
Speaker 1: still dotted with Halloween displays. Security cameras picked her up
Speaker 1: at points along the way, recording her movements in short
Speaker 1: fragments of grainny footage, but the cameras didn't capture everything.
Speaker 1: They showed her journey into the town Center, but not
Speaker 1: the journey home. Somewhere beyond the Golden Mile, in the
Speaker 1: maze of streets that fan out from the seafront, she
Speaker 1: disappeared a work light when she went up with the
Speaker 1: friend and I'm not se quiz. Can I give you
Speaker 1: a discripch in place? She's got a shoulder out, dark
Speaker 1: brown hair with a fringe. She's got a fringe and
Speaker 1: what was she wearing? The black young per aunt were
Speaker 1: like white diamonds on the young hair what she called Charlie.
Speaker 1: Charlie Dan Charlene Downes was born in Coventry on the
Speaker 1: twenty fifth of March nineteen eighty nine. Her early childhood
Speaker 1: was spent in the Midlands, where her mother Karen, stayed
Speaker 1: at home to care for Charlene and her siblings, brother
Speaker 1: and two sisters. Her father, Robert, was a former soldier
Speaker 1: who had served in the army before settling into civilian life.
Speaker 1: He picked up various jobs, at one point working as
Speaker 1: a door man to support the family. When Charlene was
Speaker 1: ten years old, the family decided to move to Blackpool,
Speaker 1: settling into a terraced house on Buchanan Street. It was
Speaker 1: only a short walk from the north here, close enough
Speaker 1: to hear the sounds of the town center, but just
Speaker 1: far enough removed to maintain the quieter pace of residential life.
Speaker 1: By two thousand and three, the household on Buchanan Street
Speaker 1: included Charlene's parents, her sister Becky, and her grandmother Jesse.
Speaker 1: At fourteen, Charlene was a student at Saint George's High
Speaker 1: School in Marton navigating the difficult years between childhood and adulthood.
Speaker 1: Like many teenagers in Blackpool, Charlene was drawn to the
Speaker 1: town center, the Golden Mile, the shops, the arcades. It
Speaker 1: was a place that felt bigger and more exciting than
Speaker 1: the quiet streets where she lived, a place where she
Speaker 1: could feel independent. Friends described Charlene as outgoing and sociable,
Speaker 1: somebody who made friends easily and was always comfortable talking
Speaker 1: to new people. She was funny, loyal, and protective of
Speaker 1: those that she cared about. Her mother described her as
Speaker 1: a bubbly girl who liked to laugh, west life and fashion.
Speaker 1: But Charlene's home life wasn't without its challenges. The family
Speaker 1: had been known to social services in Coventry and Walsall
Speaker 1: due to child protection concerns. In Blackpool, agencies logged reports
Speaker 1: of violence in the home, lack of supervision, and incidents
Speaker 1: that raised concerns about potential sexual exploitation. Charlene herself was
Speaker 1: in a difficult stage. She'd been expelled from school and
Speaker 1: was trying to find her footing, no longer a child
Speaker 1: but not quite an adult. In the months leading up
Speaker 1: to November of two thousand and three, her family noticed
Speaker 1: she seemed to be growing up quickly. She was more
Speaker 1: focused on her clothes and appearance, and she often spoke
Speaker 1: about older friends. It was a familiar your teenage mix
Speaker 1: of one thing to be seen as a mature whilst
Speaker 1: still being very much a child at home. Her sister
Speaker 1: Becky would later reflect on how close they were. I
Speaker 1: was involved in a car crash when I was nine
Speaker 1: and ended up on a live support machine. When I
Speaker 1: came out of the comb I couldn't even tie my
Speaker 1: own shoelaces, but Charlene did everything for me. She was
Speaker 1: so caring she helped me recover. On the first of
Speaker 1: November two thousand and three, the day after Halloween, Charlene
Speaker 1: dressed in a black jumper with white diamonds and black
Speaker 1: trousers with sequins and three stripes at the bottom. She
Speaker 1: and Becky headed into town for some shopping before stopping
Speaker 1: at McDonald's for dinner. At around six forty five pm,
Speaker 1: the sisters bummed into their mother, Karen, on Church Street.
Speaker 1: Karen was handing out fliers for an Indian restaurant where
Speaker 1: she worked. They chatted briefly before Becky said that she
Speaker 1: was heading home. Charlene's she was going to meet friends
Speaker 1: Natalie and Natasha. She used a nearby phone box to
Speaker 1: call them and then waited with her mother until they arrived.
Speaker 1: Karen watched on as Charlene and her friends walked towards
Speaker 1: the Winter gardens. It was the last time she saw
Speaker 1: her daughter. When Karen returned home from work that night,
Speaker 1: Charlene wasn't there. She had a curfew of ten pm,
Speaker 1: but the hours passed with no sign of her. Karen
Speaker 1: began calling her on Charlene's friends, but nobody had seen her.
Speaker 1: As the night wore on, the absence became more alarming.
Speaker 1: What had started as a normal evening in town was
Speaker 1: now the beginning of a search that would consume not
Speaker 1: only her family, but the entire town. After Charlene Downs
Speaker 1: was reported missing, the search for her began. More than
Speaker 1: thirty officers were assigned to the case, and police appealed
Speaker 1: to the public for their help. In those early days,
Speaker 1: they said it was possible that Charlene was sleeping rough
Speaker 1: or staying with friends jut connections crossed different parts of town,
Speaker 1: but it was still unusual for her to remain out
Speaker 1: of touch for so long. Charlene's mother recalled one instance
Speaker 1: where she went missing before, around two years earlier. She
Speaker 1: said she had spent four days in Wolverhampton before returning home.
Speaker 1: According to Karen, however, she didn't believe her daughter was
Speaker 1: staying with friends. Nobody had seen her since the day
Speaker 1: after Halloween and nobody had heard from her. Inspector Addie
Speaker 1: Thistlewaite addressed the press, dating we're growing concern for Charlene's
Speaker 1: health and well being as it's out of character for
Speaker 1: her to go missing for this length of time. We
Speaker 1: would like to stress that she isn't in trouble and
Speaker 1: just want to know that she's safe. We would appeal
Speaker 1: to anybody for any information about her whereabouts or for
Speaker 1: Charlene herself to contact police. As the investigation unfolded, friends
Speaker 1: provided insight into her movements. On the night she was
Speaker 1: last seen, Charline had spent part of her evening at
Speaker 1: the Winter Gardens with her friends Natalie and Natasha. At
Speaker 1: around nine p m. They said their goodbyes. Natalie and
Speaker 1: Natasha were babysitting for her friend and Charlene told them
Speaker 1: that she was going home, but she wasn't. Instead, she
Speaker 1: met up with another friend and together they went to
Speaker 1: the carousel bar on the North Pier. They stayed there
Speaker 1: until around ten p m before leaving and walking towards
Speaker 1: Talbot Road. According to this friend, they parted ways at
Speaker 1: around eleven p m. With this information, police began scoring
Speaker 1: CCTV footage from around the town center. They soon located
Speaker 1: a girl they believed to be Charlene, seen around nine
Speaker 1: p m on the junction of Dixon Road and Talbot Road.
Speaker 1: The footage shooter hanging around the alleyway that runs between
Speaker 1: the shops, an area laned mostly with fast food takeaways,
Speaker 1: but after that the trail went cold. As weeks turned
Speaker 1: two months, police continued to appeal for information. Charlene's family
Speaker 1: also spoke publicly. Her mother Karen, made a heartfelt play,
Speaker 1: I can't understand why Charlene hasn't been in touch. The
Speaker 1: pain is unbearable. It's breaking my heart not knowing where
Speaker 1: she is. If Charlene reads or hears my appeal, I
Speaker 1: want her to know how much I miss and love her.
Speaker 1: Her father, Robert, echoed the same fears. The stress of
Speaker 1: not knowing where her beloved daughter is or whether she's
Speaker 1: in any danger is becoming unbearable. Detectives chased every possible lead.
Speaker 1: They visited Charlene's friends in Oldham, Denton and Wolverhampton. They
Speaker 1: conducted door to door inquiries across Blackpool and beyond, and
Speaker 1: were even assisted by the National Missing Person's Helpline, but
Speaker 1: nobody had seen or heard from Charlene since the night
Speaker 1: she vanished. In an effort to generate new Leeds police
Speaker 1: reliefed a picture of jeanes that were identical with the
Speaker 1: pair Charlene was wearing when she vanished. By January, a
Speaker 1: new missing person poster was distributed to every police station
Speaker 1: in the country. A small number of sidings were reported
Speaker 1: from different areas, but each one was investigated and ultimately
Speaker 1: ruled out. Charlene's trail, it seemed, had vanished into thin air.
Speaker 1: In May of two thousand and four, six months after
Speaker 1: Charlene went missing, detectives took an unusual step. They started
Speaker 1: DNA's testing male volunteers in the area. Detective Inspector Tony
Speaker 1: Harling explained, it may seem unusual to begin forensic testing
Speaker 1: in cases such as this where we have turned up
Speaker 1: no evidence from the missing person. It's not standard practice,
Speaker 1: but we decided to act on information gained from interviews
Speaker 1: with the number of Charlene's known associates. Those interviews with
Speaker 1: Charlene's friends revealed something deeply troubling. They told police that
Speaker 1: Charlene had been having sex with foreign men who owned
Speaker 1: or worked at local takeaways. But Charlene was only fourteen
Speaker 1: years old. The reality was that she was being groomed
Speaker 1: and exploited, and she wasn't the only one. According to
Speaker 1: one detective, she was one of a number of adolescent
Speaker 1: white girls who sometimes went at night to the alleyways
Speaker 1: behind the restaurants. Here, these girls exchanged sex for goods.
Speaker 1: Charlene and her friends even had a ra assistant derogatory
Speaker 1: named for it, Packy Alley. It was where they went
Speaker 1: when they were hungry, needed cigarettes, alcohol, or just some
Speaker 1: credit for their mobile phones. One of Charlene's friends later
Speaker 1: described how it started. They were older than you, and
Speaker 1: you thought they were your friends. It all seemed so
Speaker 1: glamorous and exciting. Young girls were drawn to the flash cars,
Speaker 1: the money, the alcohol, free food, sometimes drugs, but the
Speaker 1: glamor quickly faded. The investigation uncovered a pattern of systematic exploitation.
Speaker 1: Vulnerable girls, some as young as eleven, were being targeted
Speaker 1: by men working in Blackpool's fast food outlets. They were
Speaker 1: offered food, alcohol, or small amounts of money in exchange
Speaker 1: for sexual acts. Police later described these takeaways as honeypot locations,
Speaker 1: places where predators could easily identify and exploit vulnerable teenagers.
Speaker 1: One of Charlene's friends remembered a man who would offer
Speaker 1: her drugs, saying they would loosen her up. She said
Speaker 1: he made her flesh crawl. Another man constantly propositioned young girls,
Speaker 1: all while insulting them, calling white girls flags and comparing
Speaker 1: them unfavorably to Muslim women, who he said walked five
Speaker 1: steps behind their husbands. The scale of abuse was staggering.
Speaker 1: Police believed at least sixty girls had been caught up
Speaker 1: in the network. A later report concluded young people were
Speaker 1: being abused and assaulted both inside and outside of premises
Speaker 1: by a number of takeaway owners and workers. The wider
Speaker 1: environment made Blackpool particularly vulnerable to this kind of exploitation.
Speaker 1: The town had high levels of poverty and cheap short
Speaker 1: term housing that meant people were constantly moving in and
Speaker 1: moving out. By the early two thousands, Blackpool ranked as
Speaker 1: the twelfth poorest area in the country. Around sixteen percent
Speaker 1: of children on the town's Child Protection Register were considered
Speaker 1: at risk of abuse, nearly doubled the national average. Add
Speaker 1: that to the fact that Blackpool had always drawn in
Speaker 1: runaway children attracted by the bright lights of the Seaside Horn,
Speaker 1: and it created the perfect condition for predators. Charlene's disappearance
Speaker 1: had exposed what was believed to be one of the
Speaker 1: first grooming networks identified in Britain on this scale. It
Speaker 1: had been hiding in plain sight. See mcgurty, who coordinated
Speaker 1: Mothers if sexually abused children, wasn't surprised. She commented, there
Speaker 1: have always been shocking levels of abuse of children in
Speaker 1: this town, but before Charlene Downes went missing, it was
Speaker 1: completely swept onto the carpet. In response, police formed a
Speaker 1: dedicated task force, Project Awaken, set up specifically to tackle
Speaker 1: child sexual exploitation in Blackpool, and detectives began to wonder
Speaker 1: if Charlene herself had been forced into sex work. Over
Speaker 1: the course of the investigation, more than three thousand men
Speaker 1: were DNA tested, but nothing ever came of these tests,
Speaker 1: and Charlene remained missing. The first anniversary of her disappearance
Speaker 1: came and went, then the second, her family were left
Speaker 1: trying to piece together their lives without knowing what had
Speaker 1: happened to their daughter. Every so often someone was sure
Speaker 1: they'd seen her in Manchester, in a Burger king in London,
Speaker 1: but each sighting was investigated and each was ruled out.
Speaker 1: Theories circulated. Some people believed that Charlene had simply run away,
Speaker 1: others thought she must have been sold into sex trafficking,
Speaker 1: and many were convinced that she was dead. At the
Speaker 1: two year anniversary, Detective Superintendent Paul Basheney made it clear
Speaker 1: that the case was still a priority. He stated, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter how many cases were working on. She has
Speaker 1: an incident room all of her own and there are
Speaker 1: officers working on her case who have been with it
Speaker 1: from day one. In the early hours of the seventh
Speaker 1: of March two thousand and six, police moved in. Officers
Speaker 1: surrounded two flats, one in Blackpool, the other in nearby Fleetwood.
Speaker 1: They waited in the darkness until the order came. Doors
Speaker 1: were smashed open and two men were arrested. Twenty eight
Speaker 1: year old he At Albaateak and forty nine year old
Speaker 1: Mohammed Ravishi Albataki, who was originally from Jordan, owned a
Speaker 1: fast food shop in Blackpool called Funny Boys. Ravichi, who
Speaker 1: was born in Iran, was a former army sergeant. He
Speaker 1: was also Abataki's business partner and also his landlord. Charlene
Speaker 1: had been a familiar face at Funny Boys when other
Speaker 1: teenagers were in school. She was often seen hanging around
Speaker 1: the town. According to friends, she spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time in the fast food take away and she was
Speaker 1: always given free food as detective's dog. Deeper disturbing stories
Speaker 1: began to surface. A woman named Kirsty Fletcher worked at
Speaker 1: another fast food restaurant in Blackpool. One day, she went
Speaker 1: to see her employer about wages. While there, she overheard
Speaker 1: a group of men talking. Among them was Albataki. The
Speaker 1: men were discussing having sex with young white girls. Albaateeki
Speaker 1: mentioned Charlene by name. He laughed and said that she
Speaker 1: was kinky and very small, and he added a chilling
Speaker 1: comment that Charlene had gone into the kebabs. But Kursey
Speaker 1: wasn't the only one to hear things. David Cassidy, a
Speaker 1: local arcade owner, was a friend of Albataki and his
Speaker 1: brother Terake. After a falling out between the Brothersterake had
Speaker 1: confided in David with everything will happened to Charlene Downes.
Speaker 1: He said to him that he knew something that would
Speaker 1: get my brother sent away. He was in tears as
Speaker 1: he spoke. According to David, Drake said that his brother
Speaker 1: had strangled Charlene. There was a lot of blood, he
Speaker 1: told him. He said that Charlene had been killed, chopped
Speaker 1: up and disposed of. When Albategi found out his brother
Speaker 1: had spoken, he threatened David, warning that he'd be dealt
Speaker 1: with if he told anybody. He even offered him an
Speaker 1: interest free loan arranged through Revie She to keep him quiet,
Speaker 1: but eventually David went to police. He later explained, I
Speaker 1: had heard rumors of young girls getting into Van's and
Speaker 1: not being seen until the next day. I'd heard people
Speaker 1: say that Ravechi was seen in bed with three young girls.
Speaker 1: One of them was Charlene Downes. I was told she'd
Speaker 1: had enough and was going to go to the police,
Speaker 1: and that's what triggered something in their heads. They weren't
Speaker 1: going to let that happen. Detectives soon spoke with Alba
Speaker 1: Taki and Riveshi. Both men insisted they had never seen
Speaker 1: Charlene in person, and the only time they had any
Speaker 1: knowledge of her was through the missing person posters. They
Speaker 1: denied any involvement in her disappearance. Be an indictable with
Speaker 1: the woice. All of us are nice, all of us
Speaker 1: who haven't done Would you consider yourself to be a
Speaker 1: good friend or us easible? Dead? Did? Good? Friendly? Yeah?
Speaker 1: He's a good friend. Yeah. I wouldn't say it's about
Speaker 1: this thinks a person? No, no, no, no, I mean
Speaker 1: there is nothing to hide all of us. Police weren't convinced.
Speaker 1: They installed covert listening devices in both Albataki and Raveachi's
Speaker 1: flats and even in Ravechi's car. What they captured was
Speaker 1: deeply troubling. The recordings were often fragmented and difficult to interpret.
Speaker 1: The detective said that certain phrases and exchanges suggested involvement
Speaker 1: in Charlene's disappearance. On one tape, Ravichi was heard expressing
Speaker 1: disbelief that police were investigating the case. In his words,
Speaker 1: Charlene was not even from a decent or important family.
Speaker 1: On another, he apparently said eat the body. Albaategy could
Speaker 1: be heard saying he had killed while talking about Charlene.
Speaker 1: In another recording, Ravichi described a gruesome act. Her big
Speaker 1: bone went into the machine as well. Albateki responded her
Speaker 1: bones inside the machine. Ravigi confirmed yes. The conversation suggested
Speaker 1: a disturbing sequence of events that Albaateki had killed Charlene
Speaker 1: and Ravichi had assisted in disposing of the body. There
Speaker 1: were repeated references to a kebab machine, and at one
Speaker 1: point Ravichi spoke about checking the burial place. Later his
Speaker 1: tone broke and he sobbed, I can't cope. The recordings
Speaker 1: alone were not straightforward evidence. They were difficult to interpret
Speaker 1: and often opened a challenge, but in combination with witness
Speaker 1: statements and the broader investigation, they painted a disturbing picture.
Speaker 1: The day after the arrest, Albatake was charged with murder
Speaker 1: and Ravachi with assisting an offender. The trial began in
Speaker 1: May of two thousand and seven at Preston Crowancourt. Prosecutor
Speaker 1: Tim Holroyd opened by telling the jury that Charlene had
Speaker 1: been groomed by one or both of the defendants. He
Speaker 1: described the network of young white girls who were drawn
Speaker 1: into Blackpool's fast food shops where they were sexually exploited
Speaker 1: by older men. The prosecutor outlined the witness testimony, the
Speaker 1: recorded conversations and other pieces of evidence. He argued that
Speaker 1: Albateiki was the person who killed Charlene and that Ravechi
Speaker 1: had helped in disposing of her body. The defense claimed
Speaker 1: that both men were innocent. They argued that the witnesses
Speaker 1: were unreliable, that the recordings were too difficult to decipher,
Speaker 1: and that the police had overstepped their expertise. Defense attorney
Speaker 1: John Bromley Davenport even suggested that Detective Sergeant gene b
Speaker 1: Sant was unqualified to interpret the tapes given how closely
Speaker 1: she had been involved with the case from the start.
Speaker 1: Testimony from Detective Sergeant Stephen Moorcraft detailed the nation wide
Speaker 1: search for Charlene. He said there had been more than
Speaker 1: seventy reported sightings across the UK and abroad. Every report
Speaker 1: had been investigated, but none yielded any results. Miricroft noted
Speaker 1: that there was no record of Charlene Howd having worked,
Speaker 1: claimed benefits, used NHS services, or paid rent or utility
Speaker 1: bills in the years following her disappearance. The prosecution then
Speaker 1: presented fifty two digital audio tapes collected during the surveillance
Speaker 1: police had monitored the suspects twenty four hours a day
Speaker 1: from a dedicated room at Blackpool's police station, carefully cataloging
Speaker 1: every conversation whennesses also included David Cassidy, a local arcade owner,
Speaker 1: who recounted what Tariq had told him about his brother.
Speaker 1: Tarik had confided that Abatiki strangled Charlene and then dismembered
Speaker 1: her body. Cassidy testified he told me she was strangled.
Speaker 1: As Cassidy gave his testimony, Charlene's mother, Karen, was overwhelmed
Speaker 1: and fled from the public gallery in tears. I spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time in my home studio researching cases,
Speaker 1: recording episodes, and editing audio. So when I learned that
Speaker 1: indoor air can actually be up to one hundred times
Speaker 1: more polluted than outdoor air, I'll admit I was pretty alarmed.
Speaker 1: We're talking about allergens, dusted mold spores, even viruses just
Speaker 1: circulating around us while we're working and living. And get this,
Speaker 1: Americans spend about ninety percent of their time indoors, which
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Speaker 1: it's made a noticeable difference. Air Doctor eliminates ninety nine
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Speaker 1: com using the promo code morbidology defense attorney Ian Goldran
Speaker 1: attacked Cassidy's credibility. He suggested that the conversation never occurred,
Speaker 1: pointing to Cassidy's past criminal record for dishonesty dating back
Speaker 1: to when he was seventeen. Goldran asked why Cassidy had
Speaker 1: waited months to go to the police. He responded, I
Speaker 1: had to determine whether it was here sayer gossip. The
Speaker 1: jury were then sent off to deliberate. By the end
Speaker 1: of the first day, they hadn't reached a verdict. This
Speaker 1: continued for eleven more day days. Unable to come to
Speaker 1: an agreement, the jury was discharged and a retrial was ordered.
Speaker 1: In April the next year, an unexpected development shocked everybody
Speaker 1: involved in the case. The charges against Yad Albatik and
Speaker 1: Mohammed Ravishi were dropped. Lakeshier Police faced severe criticism, accused
Speaker 1: of having lied and of pursuing the case with an agenda.
Speaker 1: After the collapse, serious errors with the surveillance evidence had
Speaker 1: been identified, raising questions with the Crime Prosecution Service. On
Speaker 1: top of his, concerns were raised about David Cassidy, the
Speaker 1: lead witness. His reliability was called into question and without
Speaker 1: sufficient credible evidence, prosecutors were forced to offer no case.
Speaker 1: Both men were then released from costady. Charlene's family were
Speaker 1: said to be devastated. Her mother Karen said part of
Speaker 1: me went with her. She didn't deserve to die. Ravigi
Speaker 1: meanwhile described the case against him as shameful and announced
Speaker 1: plans to sue the police. Both he and Albatigo were
Speaker 1: later awarded two hundred and fifty thousand pounds in compensation
Speaker 1: for the time they had spent behind bars. In the aftermath,
Speaker 1: it was announced at Lancashire Police would be investigated by
Speaker 1: the Independent Police Complaints Commission. The inquiry would focus on
Speaker 1: an alleged abuse of process by officers and the disappearance
Speaker 1: of a key tape from the surveillance. While the investigation continued,
Speaker 1: Charlene's parents began organizing a memorial service for their daughter
Speaker 1: at Saint John's Church in Blackpool. They also planned to
Speaker 1: place a memorial bench in Stanley Park, one of Charlene's
Speaker 1: favorite places. Her father, Robert, took on a fund raising challenge,
Speaker 1: cycling the Northwest coast to raise money for the memorial.
Speaker 1: He stated, it's been really difficult, but this has given
Speaker 1: me something to concentrate on. It's frustrating because you can't
Speaker 1: actually do anything. You have to just wait around and
Speaker 1: hope you hear some news. But this has given me
Speaker 1: something I can throw myself into, something I can actually
Speaker 1: do that's not out of my hands. The memorial service
Speaker 1: was held on the fourteenth of September. Karen and Robert
Speaker 1: commented that they were beginning to accept that Charlene was dead.
Speaker 1: They hope the service would allow those who knew her
Speaker 1: to celebrate her life and look forward with hope. Led
Speaker 1: by Reverend Helen Hornby, the service included heartfelt eulogies from
Speaker 1: the family. The reverend then remarked, the best memorial to
Speaker 1: Charlene will not be in marble or stone, but in
Speaker 1: this smile and sunny nature that so many of her family,
Speaker 1: friends and neighbors have described so well. Following the service,
Speaker 1: four white doves were released in front of the church.
Speaker 1: The next month, the memorial bench in Stanley Park was unveiled. Then,
Speaker 1: in March of two thousand and nine, Charlene's sister Emma
Speaker 1: was charged with the racially aggravated assault against Albateake's brother
Speaker 1: to Rake at Black Pulse Club, Sanouk. She had slapped
Speaker 1: him and then made racial remarks. Dreke said to her,
Speaker 1: it's got nothing to do with me. Emma pleaded guilty
Speaker 1: the lesser charge of common assault. She claimed that during
Speaker 1: the incident to rake it spad in her face, first
Speaker 1: prompting her reaction. In October of two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: the Independent Police Complaints Commission concluded its investigation into the
Speaker 1: handling of the case. The report identified a series of
Speaker 1: failings by Lancashire Police, citing a strategic and tactical failure
Speaker 1: in the management of audio and video material. Proper records
Speaker 1: hadn't been maintained, evidence was incompletely transcribed, and the overall
Speaker 1: integrity of the material hadn't been insured. The use of
Speaker 1: untrained and inexperienced officers was also criticized, as well as
Speaker 1: the handling of a human intelligence source. The report recommended
Speaker 1: that one officer face a disciplinary hearing, another receive a
Speaker 1: written warning, and five more be given words of advice.
Speaker 1: Assistant Chief Constable Andy Cook said, I want to reassure
Speaker 1: the family and our local communities that we have learned
Speaker 1: lessons from this and have moved on quickly in terms
Speaker 1: of handling such information. For Charlene's mother, Karen, the findings
Speaker 1: offered little comfort. She said, we feel badly let down
Speaker 1: by the police and the Crime Prosecution Service. We're no
Speaker 1: further on, We're back to square one. There's no closure.
Speaker 1: Following the report, protests erupted from the far right group
Speaker 1: the English Defense League, known for its anti Islam rhetoric.
Speaker 1: The EDL claimed to be demonstrating for justice for Charlene
Speaker 1: Downes when they gathered at Saint Chad's Headland. Their presence
Speaker 1: inflamed tensions in Blackpool, drawing media attention and further complicating
Speaker 1: an already fraud situation. Meanwhile, in twenty ten, the fast
Speaker 1: food takeaway previously known as Funny Boys returned to public scrutiny.
Speaker 1: Renamed Mister Baines, its license was revoked by Blackpool counsul
Speaker 1: Councilors noted that crime levels of the premises were three
Speaker 1: times higher than the other takeaways in the town center.
Speaker 1: Allegations of inappropriate behavior with young girls persisted, and the
Speaker 1: takeaway was still operated by Mohammed Ravishi and Iad Albataki.
Speaker 1: The men contested the license revocation, claiming of vendetta against them,
Speaker 1: despite no convictions in the connection to Charlene's disappearance. Investigations
Speaker 1: revealed that in the twelve months leading up to the
Speaker 1: thirty first of March, the takeaway accounted for sixty five
Speaker 1: percent of all reported incidents across four late night takeaways
Speaker 1: on Dixon Road. Nine violent offenses were recorded during that period,
Speaker 1: including mass brawls and disorderly behavior, while CCTV coverage was
Speaker 1: found to be non functional. Multiple young girls reported mating
Speaker 1: Albataki at the takeaway, where they were allegedly supplied with
Speaker 1: alcohol and cocaine. Solicitor Anthony Horn, representing Blackpool Police at
Speaker 1: the licensing hearings, stated, one of our concerns is this
Speaker 1: pattern of young girls being attracted to the premises because
Speaker 1: they're open late and being supplied with alcohol and cocaine.
Speaker 1: There's no other takeaway in Blackpool that comes anywhere near
Speaker 1: this level of incidents. During the hearing, six young females
Speaker 1: came forward to detail separate incidents of decent behavior by
Speaker 1: Albatiki and Raveshi. The girls, aged between thirteen and fifteen,
Speaker 1: described being groomed, touched, and given gifts in exchange for sex.
Speaker 1: A photograph was even presented showing Albataki with the fourteen
Speaker 1: year old girl sitting on his knee. In October of
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, the family of a fifteen year
Speaker 1: old girl reported that Albatiki had supplied her with drugs,
Speaker 1: prompting the police to serve him with the warning notice
Speaker 1: under the Child Abduction Act prohibiting contact with girls under sixteen.
Speaker 1: Records also revealed that Albatiki had been arrested on suspicion
Speaker 1: of rape on five separate occasions over the past three
Speaker 1: or four years. Albatiki testified during the hearing defending himself,
Speaker 1: I've been arrested five times for it, but never charged,
Speaker 1: and each of the five times came after the Charlene
Speaker 1: Dawns case. The police don't like me because I've proved
Speaker 1: they're corrupt. They have so called intelligence reports on me,
Speaker 1: but they're not right. We're talking about a conspiracy. At
Speaker 1: the time, police had kept details of the Grimming Ring quiet,
Speaker 1: amid claims that the report had been suppressed for reasons
Speaker 1: of political correctness. An officer speaking anonymously said there was
Speaker 1: a reluctance to acknowledge the specific offend their profile because
Speaker 1: ninety six percent of Blackpool's population is white. Ultimately, following
Speaker 1: the hearing, the men were informed that the takeaway could
Speaker 1: no longer operate past eleven pm. In May of twenty eleven,
Speaker 1: yet Albatiki once again faced legal consequences. He was convicted
Speaker 1: of attacking his ex girlfriend, eighteen year old Natasha Mottram
Speaker 1: in court. Natasha accused him of using alcohol and cocaine
Speaker 1: to manipulate her and her friends, keeping them hanging around
Speaker 1: his takeaway after she left him for a new boyfriend.
Speaker 1: Albatiki head buttered her. The victim told the court, he's
Speaker 1: a horrible man. I don't want to go into Blackpool
Speaker 1: in case I see him. He's so intimidating. I have
Speaker 1: had nightmares about him and I can't sleep properly. Albataki
Speaker 1: was sentenced to twenty weeks in jail. The takeaway was
Speaker 1: eventually sold in July of two thy eleven, closing a
Speaker 1: chapter on the premises that had been linked to multiple
Speaker 1: allegations of grooming and exploitation. Towards the end of that year,
Speaker 1: Detective Superintendent jan Bacint resigned amid criticism of her handling
Speaker 1: of the Charlene Dawns investigation. Joan had been solely responsible
Speaker 1: for bogging Albataki's home. A tribunal later cleared her name
Speaker 1: and confirmed she could rejoin the force, although she chose
Speaker 1: not to. She subsequently sued them for five hundred thousand pounds,
Speaker 1: with her Police Federation representative describing her as having been
Speaker 1: made a scapegoat for the failed murder inquiry. Charlene's family
Speaker 1: continued to struggle with the aftermath. Her sister Becky found
Speaker 1: it impossible to move on and eventually gave up her job.
Speaker 1: She reflected, if I let go of that little feeling
Speaker 1: of hope or crack, I carry the guilt around with
Speaker 1: me constantly. If I didn't leave her that day, would
Speaker 1: it have happened? It's on my mind. Twenty four to seven, Robert,
Speaker 1: Charlene's father, went off sick, while Karen, her mother, quit
Speaker 1: her job as a club promoter in Blackpool. In February
Speaker 1: of twenty twelve, Charlene's older brother, Robert was arrested after
Speaker 1: punching Ravati in the face and shouting that's for my sister.
Speaker 1: He pleaded guilty due charge of putting a person in
Speaker 1: fear of violence by harassment and was sentenced to twelve
Speaker 1: months in jail, suspended for two years. Karen was also
Speaker 1: handed a harassment warning after distributing flowers implicating Albatakean Ravachi
Speaker 1: and her daughter's disappearance. She refused to sign the notice,
Speaker 1: insisting she would rather go to prison. I'm very upset.
Speaker 1: I'm Charlene's mother and I should be allowed to protest peacefully.
Speaker 1: The years continued to drag past despite the controversy. Police
Speaker 1: remained convinced that they had arrested the right men, but
Speaker 1: others weren't so sure. At the ten year anniversary, a
Speaker 1: digitally eaged photograph if Charlene was released. It was handed
Speaker 1: to her mother. She smiled faintly and stated, it's really
Speaker 1: lovely being faced with a photo of what she would
Speaker 1: look like now. She called her daughter beautiful. She said
Speaker 1: she missed her every single day. But behind the cameras,
Speaker 1: behind the carefully polished words, there was another truth. Charlene's
Speaker 1: parents had aligned themselves with the far right. They allowed
Speaker 1: her story to be paraded as a symbol of so
Speaker 1: called braun on white abuse. They became cherished icons of
Speaker 1: the British National Party. But they sat on a hollow
Speaker 1: throne because in twenty thirteen, the truth finally began to surface.
Speaker 1: Social workers had long believed that Charlene was repeatedly exposed
Speaker 1: to abuse, not only outside the home, but inside it,
Speaker 1: middle aged white men welcomed in by her own father.
Speaker 1: According to police documents, when Charlene was nine, she and
Speaker 1: another girl alleged that they were being sexually abused by
Speaker 1: a man her parents allowed to take them to school.
Speaker 1: He was charged with rape, but the case fell apart
Speaker 1: when the other girl failed to give evidence. Then, instead
Speaker 1: of protecting her, Charlene's parents allowed a convicted rapist to
Speaker 1: visit the house regularly and have unsupervised access to Charlene.
Speaker 1: Robert was strung wrongly. Advised by Social services not to
Speaker 1: allow the man inside the house, he ignored them. A
Speaker 1: witness eventually told police they saw the man fondling Charlene
Speaker 1: in the house. At twelve years old, Charlene was discovered
Speaker 1: by a council worker in a downstairs bedroom. She was
Speaker 1: dressed in a skimpy nightgown, a sixty year old man
Speaker 1: was zipping up his trousers. This incident was reported to
Speaker 1: Social Services, but it was decided not to pursue the
Speaker 1: matter further due to lack of evidence and a lack
Speaker 1: of cooperation from Charlene's family. Her parents described it as
Speaker 1: a misunderstanding. Robert even blamed the council worker for being
Speaker 1: too nosy. Her parents described the man as a lovely,
Speaker 1: nice old man who was probably just adjusting his trousers.
Speaker 1: By then, Charlene was slipping further into danger. She was
Speaker 1: often seen at the Salvation Army soup kitchen. Local spotted
Speaker 1: her dancing for grown men outside pubs. Her parents brushed
Speaker 1: it off, saying she simply loved music, but men around
Speaker 1: her weren't interested in music. A forty year old man
Speaker 1: admitted he paid Charlene to perform a sex act on him.
Speaker 1: Another man in his fifties described the thirteen year old
Speaker 1: as his girlfriend. At the time of her disappearance, another
Speaker 1: sexual predator was living in the family home. His name
Speaker 1: was Ray Munroe. Robert had met him at a pub
Speaker 1: and invited him to stay. Monroe was a convicted sexual offender,
Speaker 1: having pleaded guilty to crimes against two ten year old girls.
Speaker 1: He even admitted to touching Charlene, but he wasn't the
Speaker 1: only one. Over the course of Charlene's short life, as
Speaker 1: many as sixteen convicted men raped, bists, abusers, violent offenders
Speaker 1: had passed through the Downs home. Child protection officials wrote
Speaker 1: report after report they kept notes, but notes don't protect children.
Speaker 1: Charlene was labeled vulnerable to exploitation even as an infant.
Speaker 1: Twice social services decided she should be taken into care.
Speaker 1: The first time there was no place available. The second
Speaker 1: time a place was found, but her parents fought to
Speaker 1: keep her and they won. At eleven, a hospital report
Speaker 1: described signs of sexual abuse. In her last two years alive,
Speaker 1: Charlene made thirteen separate visits to a sexual health clinic,
Speaker 1: and then when she disappeared, her mother waited two days
Speaker 1: before reporting her missing. It later emerged that just a
Speaker 1: week earlier, Charlene had been given forty pounds by a
Speaker 1: white man described by police as a compulsive, perverted predator
Speaker 1: living in a squalid flat filled with pornography. That man
Speaker 1: was Ray Monroe, the same man who was living with
Speaker 1: the Downs family, the same man who saw Charlene on
Speaker 1: the night she disappeared. Police eventually drew up a list
Speaker 1: of one hundred men of interest in her case, one
Speaker 1: hundred men who could have potentially abused her. It's safe
Speaker 1: to say that Charlene was failed by every single adult
Speaker 1: who might have protected her, failed by her parents, failed
Speaker 1: by social workers, failed by police, and prosecutors whose incombetence
Speaker 1: let her case collapse in court. Over the years, detectives
Speaker 1: kept pushing. A one hundred thousand pounds reward was offered
Speaker 1: for information. In twenty sixteen, they released fresh ECTV from
Speaker 1: the day that Charlene vanished, hoping a clearer view and
Speaker 1: a wider audience might finally shake loose a name, a detail,
Speaker 1: a memory. The following year, a fifty one year old
Speaker 1: man was arrested on suspicion of murder. He was never
Speaker 1: publicly identified, and after questioning, he was released without charge.
Speaker 1: Presumably that man was Ray Monroe. In two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: tragedy hit the family once more. Charlene's brother, Robert died
Speaker 1: of an accidental hermin overdose. He left behind four children,
Speaker 1: Another loss, another absence that couldn't be explained away. Today,
Speaker 1: three theories dominate the case. The first that Charlene was
Speaker 1: killed by Iad Albatachian disposed of through a mincing machine.
Speaker 1: Experts have long caution that forcing a body through commercial
Speaker 1: equipment without leaving detectable DNA would be highly unlikely. The
Speaker 1: second that Charlene was killed by Ray Munroe, a known
Speaker 1: predator who had both opportunity and proximity, and who admitted
Speaker 1: to indecently touching Charlene. The third that her parents were involved.
Speaker 1: Even now some still point the finger at them. Police
Speaker 1: say that both were interviewed and rolled out. What remains
Speaker 1: is that Charlene is still missing. There is circumstantial evidence
Speaker 1: that she's dead, but no forensic evidence ties her fate
Speaker 1: to any single person, no body, no definite of answers,
Speaker 1: just a case file that grows older each year. And
Speaker 1: so we end where we began with a fourteen year
Speaker 1: old girl in a seaside town, A girl who looked
Speaker 1: younger than her age, who liked music and fashion, who
Speaker 1: joked with friends and wandered the bright streets that promised
Speaker 1: excitement and delivered danger. Charlene was vulnerable, marked early as
Speaker 1: at risk, and then repeatedly left at risk by adults
Speaker 1: who invited harm into her life, by systems that documented
Speaker 1: warnings but failed to act, and by an investigation that
Speaker 1: stumbled when it mattered the most. Well, that is it
Speaker 1: for this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for listening and I'd like to say a massive
Speaker 1: thank you to my newest supporter up on Patreon. Nel
Speaker 1: me the link to Patreon's in the show notes, and
Speaker 1: you can join me there for as little as one
Speaker 1: dollar a month. Morbidology Plus is also now up on
Speaker 1: Apple subscriptions, where you get bonus episodes that aren't on
Speaker 1: the regular podcast platforms. I've been sick for the past week,
Speaker 1: so I apologize if my voice sounds a bit funky
Speaker 1: in this week's episode. Remember to check Aside at morbidology
Speaker 1: dot com for more information about this episode and to
Speaker 1: read some true crime articles. Until next time, take care
Speaker 1: of yourself, stay safe, and have an amazing week.