Teenager found with slashed belly
A TYNESIDE teenager who police feared was involved with county line drug gangs was found with a slash to his stomach.
The 16-year-old had to be moved into police protection for his own safety, with officers concerned about the “people he was associating with and the action they could take”.
The drama, which unfolded late in 2020, has been revealed in a North Tyneside Council report into child exploitation during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It reveals a decrease in the number of young people going missing during the pandemic. Of those who did, a “high proportion” returned home within a few hours.
However some vanish for longer, including one 17-year-old male who was missing for four days.
And the report suggests many of those who go AWOL often do so multiple times. Of the 84 missing children reports filed from October onward, there had been just 21 children involved – meaning each youth went missing, on average, four times in just three months.
“We know that often children and young people who are at risk of or are being exploited are those who are reported missing by their carers on a regular basis,” states the report, titled Child Exploitation and developments within North Tyneside.
It adds that there had been a “significant amount of work undertaken” this year to further strengthen how those children most at risk of exploitation are safeguarded.
But in the case of the 16-year-old caught in the county lines saga, the young male found himself involved with a “well-known” Newcastle gang.
“Over the last quarter of 2020 we have had one young male who was 16 years old placed into secure accommodation due to worries that he was being criminally exploited and involved in county lines,” states the public report.
“He was involved with a well-known gang from the Newcastle area, had spent time in London and was found in the Wiltshire area with a slash to his stomach and a small cut to his ear. Police at the time kept him in police protection for his own safety due to the people he was associating with and the action they could take. They also moved to safeguard his mother and younger sibling who lived in the Newcastle area.
“The secure placement was ended on December 31 and a transition plan put in place.”
County lines involves gangs moving illegal drugs from one area to another, often across internal borders.
According to the National Crime Agency, dealers will frequently target children and adults – often with mental health or addiction problems – to act as drug runners or move cash so they can stay under the radar of law enforcement.
The report is set to go before the council’s children, education and skills sub-committee today.