Last night’s harrowing ending to Channel 5’s The Murder of Charlene Downes series gave the name of a new potential suspect – Nigel Lloyd.
Having accepted the police got the wrong men and the ‘chopped up into kebabs’ story was essentially a massive show of incompetence by investigators, journalist Joe Cusack obtained police files previously seen by the Times. These show Charlene’s own parents allowed convicted sex offenders into the family home and this may have been where the abuse started.
One of these men, Ray Munro, had previously abused a ten-year-old and was staying with the Downes family when Charlene went missing in 2003. Furthermore, the episode revealed that mother Karen waited two days before reporting her 14-year-old daughter missing.
Cusack now believes a man called Nigel Lloyd, whose property backed on to the alleyway and kebab shops frequented by Charlene and other groomed girls, is key to her disappearance and possible murder.
Here’s what we know so far…
Nigel Lloyd – famous Chef and child abuser
- Lloyd is an award-winning chef, who was featured in a 2006 episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares when he worked for Jackson’s in Blackpool. He left due to “personal reasons” before the Kitchen Nightmares team could film their ‘revisit’.
- This, unknown at the time, was after he carried out attacks on two 15-year-old girls in Blackpool in 2001 and 2003, meaning he was active around the time Charlene Downes went missing.
- Lloyd, then 51, was convicted of these offences in February 2017 and is currently serving a 64-month sentence.
- Joe Cusack says Lloyd’s flat backed on to the infamous alleyway where young girls were abused and groomed, and on the day Charlene disappeared she was seen three times in the area.
- In August, 2017, Lloyd was formally questioned by police in connection to the Downes case. He was never charged and the investigation continues.
- Lloyd previously owned a cafe in Blackpool and opened it after being inspired by his Gordon Ramsay experience. He also served food in the staff canteen at the Pleasure Beach amusement park.
As for Nigel Lloyd, it’s long been known round here that he could have been involved, he was a sick nonce too that’s serving a prison sentence as we speak & lived near the so called “P*ki Alley”. Whatever happened I really hope the truth comes out one day. #charlenedownes
— Steve Ward (@WardyPne) May 23, 2019
Charlene Downes Investigation Continues
Sadly, the Downes case is still open and the police do not have enough evidence to charge anyone new. What’s clear is that although takeaway owners Iyad Albattikhi and Mohammed Reveshi are questionable characters with ongoing allegations against them, there is no evidence that links them to Charlene’s disappearance.
Despite this, the parents who allowed known abusers into their family home and failed to notify police that Charlene went missing for two days, are still pushing the ‘chopped into kebabs’ narrative.
What are they deflecting?
