Abigail Walsh was just 7 years old when she went missing from a caravan site, on a family holiday in Blackpool, 10 years ago.
Her parents, Mick and Janice, left Abigail and her two siblings; Jason, 13 and Sarah, 10, playing near the caravan whilst they went to the site chip shop to buy dinner for everyone.
Shortly after they left, Abigail went missing and after exhausting every resource in their 24 hour search, Police closed the case which had been widely publicised on Blackpool FM and sadly the missing girl was never found.
Subsequently, taxi driver Mick and Hairdresser Janice were prosecuted for child neglect and each sentenced to 4 years in prison. Their children were also taken into care.
A new government initiative was launched in Wednesday’s budget for supplying extra funding to aid police in reopening cold cases.
Sgt. Roger Baxter from the Lancashire Constabulary said;
“This extra funding in invaluable. In this particular case, the additional funds allowed us to run Abigail’s name through the Police National Computer again, which checks it against records from every other force in the country.”
He continued;
“Sadly it didn’t return any results in this instance so we’ll have another crack at it in 10 years. Fingers crossed.”
Abigail’s mother, Janice, who has since been released from prison but was sadly never reunited with her children said;
“I’m just so glad that the Police did everything they could again. It means so much after 10 years that Abigail hasn’t been forgotten.”
She continued;
“Some families in similar situations to us have been given more money, resourses, have evaded prosecution for neglect and have even profited from book deals. Fair play to them I say. Us working class scum deserve nowt. After all I don’t even know any politicians.”
