Opinion – County lines victims need specialist response

Child C was 14 when he was brutally murdered in January 2019 on the apparent instruction of an organised crime group in East London. His youth and the savagery of the attack gave his death instant media notoriety. Many of you will know his name.

I was asked to carry out the serious case review (SCR) into his death by the Waltham Forest Safeguarding Partners. I learned that Child C had been discovered two months earlier in a trap house in Bournemouth trying to run a county line. For the next 20 hours, he was within our “reach” while in police custody. Like many children who have been exploited, Child C’s first response to arrest contained false bravura. He opened up a little to the appropriate adult, and he asked to speak to the Samaritans. These were Child C’s “reachable moments”, yet our system meant he would never meet these people again.