The Murder of Charlene Downes

Charlene Downes disappeared near Blackpool's North Shore

in November 2003.

This has been one of Lancashire's longest running

murder investigations.

What do you think did happen?

I don't know. I live in hope that she's still alive.

These two men, Mohammed Raveshi and Iyad

Albattikhi, were heard making sick jokes about chopping up her body

and putting it into a kebab.

Their conversations were bugged using secret microphones.

There was no doubt in my mind that...

...we had the right two people.

He says he's seen six black bags.

He knew that girl was in those bags.

The men were guilty

and we had the evidence to bring the killers to justice.

I know nothing about Charlene Downes.

An astonishing catalogue of incompetence, manipulation and lies.

These men have been falsely accused of the gravest of crimes.

Police think the murder happened here.

The English Defence League, the BNP, they were supporting us.

It elevated her story to a national and an international story.

This is not black and white.

I don't think anyone really wanted to talk about what was actually

happening in Blackpool at the time.

There's more to this story than anybody can imagine.

Charlene was wearing my clothes.

Very mysterious, very cheeky,

my Charlene was, very cheeky.

It was a very cold night, as well. Just like tonight.

Freezing.

Our plans were...

...just like any other teenagers, basically, just going to, erm...

...the arcades, McDonald's, and going to see my mum.

She went out with Becky down the arcades.

I gave them their pocket money, £5 each.

Doesn't sound much but it was enough.

I said, "All right, my darling, don't be late home."

She said, "I won't be late home, mum."

The night Charlene went missing

we were in Mr T's,

and she came walking in with two other people.

I think one was her sister.

We were just in a brief conversation of, where you going tonight?

And I think they were off to meet someone.

Me and Charlene walked up here.

We were coming up,

with our milkshakes in our hands, laughing and joking.

I made a phone call in that telephone box over there.

And then that's the last time I saw her.

Said she was just meeting up with some friends.

That was it.

I don't know who she went with.

I still don't know who she went with.

Or who she met up with or anything else.

No more comment. No, but... No!

We were having a lot of issues

getting the girls, getting her friends to talk,

and then when they did talk

there was a lot of conflicting accounts.

Bumped into her in town at the Town Hall.

We stayed in town for a bit. Walking around.

And then we went on the Carousel Bar.

Got talking to a few people and...

...had a few drinks.

And then I lost her, lost sight of her, and then...

Never seen her again.

The police were told that she was last seen in the Carousel Bar...

...but she wasn't.

Nobody wanted to talk about the night Charlene went missing

because I don't think anyone really wanted to talk

about what was actually happening in Blackpool at the time.

A lot of kids would be scared to say what was really going on.

cos they didn't want to get in trouble,

so they covered it up at the time

and didn't realise how serious it actually was.

Charlene Downes was one of the last cases I ever did.

Certainly the biggest.

And it's the only one that got away.

The police faced a wall of lies from the start

and there was all sorts of other leads that we were given

which turned out to be baseless.

There was all sorts of other so-called sightings of Charlene

alive and well after the day she was last seen,

but with so many misleading pieces of information being poured in

it became very difficult indeed to see the wood for the trees.

Most of this information was coming from girls of Charlene's age

so maybe they were a little reluctant to confess the truth.

Maybe some girls thought it better to tell a white lie,

a bit of a tale to protect their own reputations.

This was one of the most challenging investigations

that I ever had any involvement with.

You start off with what should have been a fairly simple,

girl in her early teens going missing from home.

There were so many lines of inquiry,

that was totally unexpected,

and it added complexity upon complexity.

It was clear from quite early on there was a lot of misinformation

around the police.

It got to the point where the investigation was going nowhere.

But then step forward David Cassidy.

Cassidy was a small time, local, white businessman...

...who knew pretty much everybody in that area and he had some...

...compelling evidence...

...that made the police sit up and listen to him.

Mr Cassidy explained fully what he'd heard

regarding the death of Charlene Downes.

Mr Cassidy was a good, reliable,

and believable witness.

Tariq gave me the full story

of what happened to Charlene Downes.

Tariq said to me that he knew something

that would get my brother sent away.

He came forward with some shocking information about two kebab shop

owners, Albattikhi and Raveshi,

and what they'd done to Charlene.

I am going now to take you to my room where, you know,

I'll give some of my documents about the Charlene Downes case.

There are many, many boxes.

Almost everyone in Blackpool thinks that I've been involved

with Charlene Downes' murder.

The police, they don't believe me either.

As far as I'm concerned I've never come across her, I do not know her.

I would not recognise her and I've never seen her in my life.

The only time that I know about her is when I see the picture of her

and things like that.

I don't see any reason why I should

come under suspicion for this,

Charlene Downes' murder.

You have to believe coincidence after coincidence to give

Raveshi any credibility whatsoever.

I think he's a dangerous man.

I think he's extremely clever and extremely manipulative,

and extremely wealthy now.

David Cassidy was this local businessman...

...who knew most of the people

running businesses in the fast food industry in Blackpool.

He moved from one takeaway shop to the next

with his slot machine business.

He told the police of some quite shocking information that he'd come

across about two Asian takeaway bosses.

To say this was the first time we had a significant lead

on what had actually happened to Charlene is an understatement.

This was dynamite to the investigation.

Cassidy named two people.

Eddie Albattikhi,

better known perhaps to his friends as Iyad.

and Mohammed Raveshi who uses the street name Rez.

I knew Raveshi, I'd heard rumours.

Young girls getting in his van and...

...not seen till the next day.

Tariq said he came in from work one night

and Raveshi was in bed with three young girls.

One was 12 at the time and two of her friends,

and one apparently was Charlene Downes.

I was told that Charlene, apparently she'd had enough

and she was going to the police.

And apparently that's what triggered something off in their heads.

You know, that wasn't going to happen.

She ended up in Eddie's room

and him strangling her.

Raveshi, I think, just helped dispose of the body.

But he says he's seen six black bags.

He knew that girl was in them bags.

This was the first time anyone had confirmed, even by inference,

that she had been killed and more importantly who killed her.

We now had two major suspects with credible evidence to progress

the investigation into those two alone.

Being in the takeaway business and knowing other owners,

the only predator that I'm aware of is Eddie Albattikhi.

Eddie was brash, arrogant,

driving around town in blacked out BMs,

looking for young girls, asking them where they're going,

do they want to go to parties?

Do you want to buy cocaine?

I've seen the temper. I've seen it for myself where he switches.

He's confronted me a few times. "I'm going to kill you."

The guy is like a time bomb.

Raveshi, they were sort of partners.

They were that close, I believe Raveshi would have helped him,

give him an alibi or helped him dispose of the body.

I mean, the rumours are that she was chopped up and put in kebabs.

That's just what I heard.

The stories that went round Blackpool were pretty horrendous.

There's a few stories. Well, there were two.

One of the guys snapped one night,

snapped a neck or whatever,

chopped her up, put her on a blender,

put her on a kebab, served them to the customers

A man got ill from a kebab,

it was tested and he found human remains.

There was the one where before she had been killed

and put in to the walls,

cos apparently there was a new wall what was built in there.

That's what I think.

That's what I've been told and what I'm led to believe, so...

2003, I had Our Finest Spices in St Annes,

and Iyad had Funny Boyz, you know, on Dixon Road.

And I had investment with him.

That is how I know Albattikhi.