Teenager Charlene Downes’ disappearance passes 22 year landmark

It is a case which has cast a shadow over Blackpool for more than two decades – now teenager Charlene Downes’ disappearance has passed the 22 year mark.

Charlene was last seen on November 1 2003 at the age of 14 – and then disappeared in mysterious circumstances.

Her disappearance remains Lancashire Police’s longest unsolved murder investigation and active case.

This week Lancashire Police confirmed that the case remained open and they would still welcome any new information.

It was a Saturday night when she was last seen,  at the end of an alleyway on Abingdon Street, after meeting a friend on North Pier.

But there was no CCTV evidence around that vicinity.

Her story has since become wrapped up in the grooming gangs scandal, with the teenager seen as another victim caught up in a web of suspicious older men taking advantage of vulnerable girls.

Although Charlene, a pupil at St George’s High School, is still technically a missing person, police believe she was murdered.

They opened a murder inquiry in 2006 and believe she was one of several girls in the town who were being sexually exploited.

But although the police brought two trials to court, one of them a retrial, and even offered a reward of £100,000, no one has ever been convicted of her murder.

Lancashire Police were even the subject of investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission in 2009, who concluded that the way evidence was gathered by police played a key part in the retrial’s collapse.

There have been documentaries, a Justice for Charlene campaign, an inquiry by a private investigator and a new podcast by Blackpool-born broadcaster and actress Nicola Thorp, Charlene: Somebody Knows Something.

Charlene’s mother, Karen Downes has called for investigations into grooming gangs in Blackpool, backing the new national inquiry.

But despite this, the trail remains cold.

Lancashire Police said: “The case remains open. We would welcome any new information.”