The mother of the missing teenager Charlene Downes has said that she will sue police over mishandling her murder case.
The 14-year-old from Blackpool disappeared on November 1, 2003. Her body has never been found.
Karen Downes said she is now taking legal action over a 13-year gap in releasing CCTV images of the teenager’s last day alive. In November last year, she said she was “disgusted” that the footage had only just been found by detectives. She said that such footage could have helped solve the case had it been made available earlier. Lancashire Police has declined to comment.
“They had [the CCTV] for 13 years,” Mrs Downes told the BBC. “It shows Charlene in the town that afternoon in the same clothes she disappeared in. If they'd have shown it before . . . who knows? We have suffered all these years not knowing where she is.”
She said police “need teaching a lesson”. “It is not about the money. I want to force the police to do their job,” she said. “If I got money I would get something for Charlene like a memorial.”
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Charlene is shown in the CCTV with her sister Rebecca on Bank Hey Street walking towards the Coral Island amusement arcade. She went home but returned to Blackpool town centre later that evening, the last time she was seen.
A judge cleared a man of Charlene’s murder in 2008 after “grave doubts” were raised about evidence during his second trial. The jury in his first trial failed to reach a verdict.
In 2009, the Independent Police Complaints Commission said police evidence-gathering errors contributed to the retrial's collapse. Investigators found strategic and tactical failures in the management of the material. Several officers were disciplined and one forced to resign in 2011. However, this order was overturned by a Police Arbitration Tribunal in 2012.