Wiltshire schoolgirl's death has led to change in council policy (From This Is Wiltshire)

Wiltshire schoolgirl's death has led to change in council policy

4:54pm Friday 23rd October 2009 in

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A Wiltshire schoolgirl heroin overdose victim slipped through a gap in the social care system due to a ''grey area'' identifying treatment for young people aged 16 to 18, an inquest heard today.

Tragic Kate Walsh, 16, from Highworth died after she fell under the influence of drug addict Alexander Charlamow, 27, and was swept away into a world of addiction and vice.

She went from being a ''pretty and popular schoolgirl'' to injecting heroin and smoking crack cocaine after she fell under the spell of svengali Charlamow.

Pretty Kate's parents Anthony and Debbie pleaded with police, social services and councillors to act before it was too late.

But in just nine months Kate spiralled into despair and - authorities belatedly believe prostitution to fund her habit - until she died alone, in a squalid bedsite, on Christmas Day.

An inquest at Trowbridge, today heard that care agencies implemented failsafe measures to ensure it should never happen again following Kate's tragic death.

The court heard Kate regularly ran away from home and ''supported lodgings'' provided by social services to live in squats with Charlamow.

A Serious Case Review was conducted by the Swindon Area Child Protection Committee to examine the treatment of Kate's case by social services and relevant agencies.

Review panel chair Adina Grace told the court that Kate's ''rights to self-determination'' as a 16-year-old caused ''confusion'' within agencies as to whether she should be treated as a child or an adult.

Her report reads: ''There was confusion within agencies whether at 16 years of age Kate should be treated as a child or adult.

''Generally in Swindon a service is not provided by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service for those who are aged 16 years but not in full time education.

''The adult service does not provide a service for this age group.

''There was uncertainty within agencies as to how to support Kate in her chaotic lifestyle and drug misuse and a failure by agencies to address the drugs issue with Kate until after her arrest.

''There then appeared to be confusion as to who was responsible for providing services for those who misuse substances.

''The Panel consider that the lack of a dedicated drugs misuse service for children and young people is a gap in Swindon children's services.''

Mrs Grace told how Swindon Borough Council had created an entire program called ''Uturn'' for drug abusing teenagers in light of the ''gap'' in social care as a direct result of Kate's death.

She said: ''We didn't have clear, cohesive policies, procedures and pathways in place at that time for dealing with young people who were misusing substances.

''There was a lack of a multi-agency cohesive and comprehensive policy. That was the case of the time.

''Now we have a young person substance abuse program called Uturn. It opened in December, 2004. It's a young person's substance misuse service.

''That was a gap in children's services, and that is a gap that has been filled by Uturn.

''There were individual agencies delivering the service but it wasn't cohesive. This brought everything together into one team.''

Mrs Grace also raised that the panel was concerned that it did not seem to be considered that Alex Charlamow, a known drug addict, was supplying Kate with drugs.

She said: ''What the panel raised was that some thought should've been given to that. It doesn' t seem to be recorded that that happened.

''We have to assume no thought was given as to whether he was supplying Kate, as others, through his dealings.''

Mrs Grace also revealed concern that sexual exploitation was not considered as a possible means of Kate funding her drug habit.

She told how evidence had emerged since her death indicating Kate may have been involved in prostitution.

It has since transpired that police intelligence suggested that Kate may have been involved in prostitution as early as September, 2003.

Mrs Grace said more attention should have been paid to how the teen was funding her drug habit.

She added: ''We've said in retrospect we felt there was evidence. It comes back that different people had different bits of information. We've put the bits together.''

The Uturn program worked with 61 young people in 2008 and 47 so far this year.

Charlamow is currently serving out a two-and-half year prison sentence for burglary.