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A grim urban myth that the body of a teenage girl was turned into kebab meat is said to have hampered the hunt for her killer for years. Charlene Downes, 14 , disappeared without a trace from her hometown of Blackpool on November 1, 2003. Two years later, police told her parents, Bob and Karen, that they believed she had been murdered within hours of her last sighting. More than 3,000 people were interviewed in one of Lancashire's biggest-ever investigations, which uncovered evidence of a child grooming gang operating in the seaside town. Two men were charged and tried in 2007, but later freed after their retrial collapsed, and both were awarded £250,000 compensation for false imprisonment. At the heart of their trial was the sensational "kebab theory", which falsely claimed they had killed Charlene, disposed of her remains using a mincing machine and put the meat into kebabs. Ahead of the 22nd anniversary of Charlene's disappearance, actor and broadcaster Nicola Thorp - who grew up just a mile from the Downes family homes - has debunked the myth once and for all in her new Daily Mail podcast, Charlene: Somebody Knows Something. "The evidence around the covert material that was relied upon in court has been fatally undermined and is not accurate, is not truthful," senior investigating officer Det Supt Gareth Willis told Thorp. "We all acknowledge evidence does not exist. It's been reviewed independently, and what was documented as being fact is, in fact, not true." Thorp's eight-part podcast, three years in the making, includes interviews with the original suspects, the schoolgirl's family and friends, witnesses and other key figures in the case. She said: "If my investigation for this podcast achieves anything, I hope it brings an end to this false and damaging narrative. 'Not just because it's a lie, but because a missing 14-year-old girl, a victim of child sexual abuse, deserves more than being reduced to a piece of meat in a headline." The investigation comes as the case has been hijacked by far-right rhetoric, particularly targeting the two Middle Eastern men who stood trial. In January, Elon Musk retweeted a post repeating the kebab myth and naming the two men. The tweet was viewed more than 5.7 million times. Charlene was last seen by her mum, Karen, who described her as a "bubbly, cheeky teenager with an infectious smile". Karen reported her missing two days later, but the family say police did not initially take the report seriously. It was only when officers uncovered evidence linking Charlene to a network of grooming gangs that they began to treat the case as urgent. During the search, police were also alerted to up to 60 schoolgirls, some as young as 11, who had allegedly been targeted by male sex offenders in Blackpool. Officers said that before going missing, Charlene was sexually abused by one or more men in an alleyway lined with takeaway shops popular with teenagers. Takeaway owner Iyad Albattikhi and his business partner Mohammed Reveshi became the two main suspects, though no physical evidence ever linked them to the crime. Detectives secretly bugged Mr Raveshi's house and car and recorded hours of conversations between the two men. Mr Albattikhi, then 29, was charged with Charlene's murder and Mr Raveshi, 50, was accused of helping him dispose of the body. The sensational kebab myth is believed to have arisen from secret, barely audible tapes that purported to record Albattikhi joking about Charlene’s death. The trial at Preston Crown Court focused heavily on transcripts of those conversations. Jurors failed to reach a verdict on either man, and after their retrial collapsed over what the police watchdog called "a catalogue of errors", both men were cleared and compensated. Thorp hopes the investigation will bring the family closer to answers and help them achieve justice. The former Coronation Street star has a history of campaigning for women’s rights. In 2016, while working as a temp for the accountancy firm PwC, she was sent home for refusing to wear high heels - prompting her to launch a petition signed by over 150,000 people. She later appeared before a Commons select committee to raise awareness of sexist dress codes. Thorp has also successfully campaigned for victims to be told the identities of their stalkers, following her own terrifying experience of being stalked online by a man later jailed for the offence in 2023. The government passed the change in law at the end of last year. The investigation into Charlene's disappearance is still open, with a £100,000 reward for information leading to a conviction.
