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Missing children: the reality
Ella first ran away from home when she was just eight. By 11 she was using heroin and by 14 she was selling sex on the street to survive. Ella may be a fairly extreme example of a runaway, but she is far from unique.
While most of the 100,000 kids who run away each year will return home after just one night, up to 1,300 will still be missing two weeks after being reported to the police. Some will disappear for months on end. They risk being physically and sexually assaulted while on the streets, or falling prey to drugs, crime or, like Ella, prostitution. Many end up permanently homeless.
The good news is that most children are recovered within 24 hours of going missing, says Chief Inspector Tim Bonnett, in charge of the police-led UK Missing & Exploited Children Web Site. 'Of the children that were missing last year, only 300 are still outstanding.'
The triggers
There are literally thousands of different reasons why kids run away. In Ella's case, it was physical abuse at home. Now in her late teens and living in a hostel while undergoing counselling, she says: 'I never wanted to live with my mum because my step dad used to beat me up. I told my aunt, who's a police officer. She believed me and I was interviewed by the police, but I guess they believed my mum and step dad over me.'
No action was taken and Ella ran away, sleeping wherever she could find shelter. Like most runaways, she didn't take any food, clothes or money and was forced to shoplift to survive. By 14 she was heavily into drugs, permanently excluded from school and living in a children's home, from which she continued to run away - on one occasion, sleeping rough for six months.
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