There are some cases I research that are not always as they appear. That is to say, something comes up that makes the case far, far bigger than it actually is. What started as me researching the disappearance of a teenager definitely turned into something much bigger, and much darker.
To begin, we start in Coventry, England, where Charlene Downes was born on March 25th, 1989. In 1999, Charlene and her family – mother Karen, father Robert, and her three siblings – moved to Blackpool.
Charlene was described by her mother as a “bubbly, cheeky teenager with an infectious smile”. She loved animals, and she loved music. However, her parents describe her as “going off the rails” around the age of 13.
They realized that their daughter had fallen in with a bad crowd. They did their best to limit Charlene’s association with these friends, but she always found her way back to them. She even regularly skipped school to spend time with them, so much so that she was expelled in 2002 for truanting.
Charlene’s older friends, the friends she knew before she met this group, even noticed a severe and distinct change in her. While the changes in Charlene’s behaviour were very apparent, so too were the changes in her demeanour and how she looked. Her friends described this change, one found right behind her eyes. Where once she was vibrant and happy, she now seemed distant, and flat.
There was a reason for that. One that would come to light later on. One that would shock the entire community, and spark national outrage.
Karen last spoke to Charlene on the 1st of November, 2003. Charlene was in the Blackpool town centre. She was wearing black jeans with a gold-eagle design on the front, a black sweater with a white-diamond pattern, and black boots. It is also speculated that she may have also been wearing a white cardigan over her sweater, with a hood.
Karen saw Charlene around 6:45 PM in the company of one of Charlene’s sisters. They spoke with each other briefly, when Charlene’s sister stated she was going home. Charlene did not join her sister, instead stating that she was going to meet up with some friends.
She went to a telephone box where she called them to meet up. At this point, Karen waited with Charlene for her friends to arrive. When they did, Karen watched as Charlene and her friends walked off together towards the Winter Gardens.
This is the last time Karen saw her daughter.
The events that come next were put together through a mix of CCTV footage, statements from Charlene’s friends, and other witness statements made to police.
After leaving her mother, Charlene and her friends spent some time together. She then met up with another friend around 9:30 PM, with whom she visited the Carousel Bar, located on the North Pier. CCTV footage around 9:00 PM shows a young girl, believed to be Charlene, walking in that direction through a main thoroughfare, which leads from the town centre to the North Pier.
The footage indicates that the girl believed to be Charlene was also in the company of a woman who appeared to be in her 30s with blonde hair, which appeared to be dyed, and a three-quarter-length coat.
Charlene met up with her friend, who stated that they left the Carousel Bar at around 10:00 PM and went back to the town centre. This same friend stated that she last saw Charlene around 11:00 PM near Talbot Road and Abingdon Street, with Talbot Road being part of main thoroughfare through the town centre.
Karen waited for her daughter to come home. When morning came and there was no sign of Charlene, she grew more and more scared and worried. She wasted no time in calling the police and reporting her daughter as missing. A photo of Charlene was passed through all the news outlets, and she was featured on national news as a missing child.
When police began investigating, they found Charlene’s friends less than forthcoming. They gave police confusing and conflicting accounts of what happened the last night Charlene was known to be alive.
However, considering where the investigation into Charlene’s disappearance would lead, no fault can be found with her friends for being tight-lipped. They were scared, terrified, and traumatized. They felt they had no other choice but to be evasive.
As the investigation continued, some very startling revelations came to light.
Charlene and her friends had been groomed. They were shown attention, promised money, alcohol, cigarettes, or sometimes food, in exchange for sexual favours. The groomers were the owners of well-known kebab and takeaway shops all along Blackpool town centre.
The investigation into the disappearance of Charlene Downes had taken a very, very dark turn. And while it was highly suspected that Charlene had been groomed just as he friends had, there was no evidence to prove that this had transpired. Charlene was still missing. And the deeper police investigated the perpetrators of the grooming rings, the more they believed that she had been murdered.
In 2005, police shared their suspicions with Charlene’s parents. The investigation into her disappearance had gone cold by this point, and it wouldn’t heat back up for another year.
In 2006, a local man came forward with some information for police. He had heard that Charlene had been in the company of two men – two kebab shop owners – shortly before her disappearance. The man knew these men, as he had installed slot machines in their shops.
He named them as Iyad Albattikhi and his business partner Mohammed Raveshi.
Both men were well known for flaunting their wealth around town, and trying to pick up any young women they came across in their travels. Raveshi owned several properties, and both men were known to use their wealth to get whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it.
The local informant told police that he had heard from Albattikhi’s brother that he had found Charlene and two other young girls in bed with him. The informant stated that he had heard that Charlene had started to push back. She was tired of the abuse these men inflicted on her. She had threatened to report them to the authorities, and she was killed to ensure her silence.
Albattikhi and Raveshi were brought in for questioning. Both men denied ever knowing Charlene, despite the fact that several witnesses had stated she’d been seen in one of their shops, Funny Boyz, often.
Following this questioning, police didn’t have enough to hold them. They were released, but surveillance was authorized. They were discretely followed, and their houses and vehicles were bugged.
Even though police had a vested interest in linking them to the disappearance of Charlene Downes, they had been on police radar for a while. It was suspected that Albattikhi and Raveshi were the ring leaders of the grooming network that had been operating in Blackpool. And seeing as they highly suspected Charlene as having been groomed, it stood to reason that they would have had a hand in her disappearance.
Raveshi was also known to police for other reasons. He had once been neighbours with an investigator, whom he referred to as his “best friend”. He called this “friend” to help him out of a jam. Raveshi had been found in the company of two young girls, both minors, at his home, watching porn. Raveshi tried to claim that the girls have put it on accidentally.
Despite his investigator “friend” not helping him out of his troubles, Raveshi still, somehow, managed to get out of it. He then went on to apply to become a foster parent, and by some absolute bullshit, the application was granted.
It didn’t take long before teen girls were placed in his home. While he denies that anything untoward happened with these girls, there are a great number of home videos that clearly show otherwise.
And yet, this man never found himself in legal trouble. Until the disappearance of Charlene Downes brought investigators to his door, and into his businesses.
Four weeks following the initial questioning, investigators and officers on the case began listening to the recordings that they had acquired from the planted bugs. By some accounts, they heard both Raveshi and Albattikhi express concern. They were worried about the direction the inquiry was going, and were allegedly heard saying things such as “I’m worried”, “i killed the girl”, and “They won’t find anything”.
However, it has to be noted that the recordings themselves were of very low quality, and were extremely difficult to decipher. It’s been alleged that the investigators were under pressure and heard what they wanted to hear due to confirmation bias.
Despite this, it became apparent that Raveshi was using his businesses as a front. He would hire young girls to work at his shops, and then he would prey on them. He would groom them, and abuse them. Many of these girls later came forward and reported him to police, laying out all the details at their feet.
Through the course of the investigation, a young woman came forward and also reported Albattikhi to police. She stated that she’d been out drinking with her friends. When she couldn’t get into the club they wanted to go to, she went to Funny Boyz for a coffee to sober up. As she drank her coffee, she began feeling strange and losing her balance.
When the young woman woke up, she was in a strange room, and she wasn’t wearing any clothes. She grabbed her clothes and ran out of the room, with Albattikhi shouting after her. She found a bouncer who called the police. The woman reported the incident to police, and they even found a video on Albattikhi’s phone showing him raping her. But police never took the case seriously, never took the case the trial, and the charges were dropped.
Had they done their due diligence then and there, the story of Charlene Downes may have turned out far, far differently.
In May of 2007, Iyad Albattikhi and Mohammed Raveshi were brought to trial in the disappearance and suspected murder of Charlene Downes. The prosecution alleged that Albattikhi had been the one responsible for murdering Charlenge, while Raveshi had been the one responsible for disposing of her body.
(For a hot minute, they threw around the absurd theory that they had ground Charlene’s body into the meat for their kebabs. Which is a theory I don’t think bears much more thought.)
At the end of the trial, the jury failed to reach a conclusive verdict.
In April of 2008, a re-trial was ordered. However, by this time, the errors that had been made throughout the investigation – mainly the extreme bias of the audio recordings – were identified, leaving the prosecution with a very thin case. In the end, there was no case left to present to court, and Albattikhi and Raveshi were released.
A few years later, in 2011, Albattikhi found himself in trouble with police again. This time, he was convicted of assault after he had headbutted a woman.
Charlene’s case had hit national, and international, news outlets at the time of her disappearance. Emotions were running high throughout the course of the investigation, and especially so when the full depths of the grooming ring came to light. But what made the case even more frustrating was the fact that more and more of the mess the case had become was coming to light.
Detective Sergeant Jan Beasant was later found guilty of misconduct and was forced to resign. It was found that she was the one transcribing the audio recordings that were being collected, when they should have been transcribed by an unbiased third party. It was found that an extreme amount of confirmation bias was used in the transcriptions, which heavily influenced the investigation.
In 2014, Beasant’s lawyer stated that she was suing the police. She also maintained the accuracy and the integrity of the audio transcripts.
In the end, employees of 11 takeaway shops in Blackpool’s town centre were found to be grooming dozens of girls between the ages of 13 and 15. The girls were often given cigarettes, food, and alcohol in return for sex.
In 2014, the police offered a £100,000 reward in return for information that would lead to the conviction of Charlene’s killer, or killers, or the recovery of her body. Panorama also featured Charlene’s disappearance in an episode titled “The Girl Who Vanished”.
In August of 2017, a 51-year-old man from Preston was arrested. He had lived in Blackpool at the time of Charlene’s disappearance. He was released two days later, and is currently no longer under investigation for her disappearance or murder.
The investigation into the disappearance of Charlene Downes is still ongoing. It is believed that someone, somewhere, has information and has yet to come forward.
Anyone with information should contact the incident room on 01253 607370 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or you can email charlenedownesinvestigation@lancashire.police.uk.
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Sources:
Charlene Downes: Parents of 14-year-old girl who went missing 20 years ago want end to ‘nightmare’ – Greg Milam – Sky News
Charlene Downes: Parents of girl missing since 2003 make fresh plea – BBC News
Case of Charlene Downes, feared killed and ground into kebab meat at 14, reopened as investigators probe fresh clues – Kit Heren – LBC
RedHanded podcast – Episode 143 – Charlene Downes: Without a Trace
Disappearance of Charlene Downes Wikipedia page
Charlene Downes – Lancanshire Constabulary