The Met Police have issued an appeal for a missing teenager nearly 10 months after she failed to show up to school.
Saidatu Jalloh, who was 14 at the time and is now 15, was reported missing by her school in Lambeth, south London, on March 9, 2022.
Staff were told she had ‘left the area’ and would ‘not be returning’.
In an update to the missing person’s investigation today, police said officers have struggled to track down the missing teen’s mother.
‘Officers attempted to locate Saidatu’s mother based on the details provided but no record of her could be found,’ police said.
‘Further checks also found no record of anyone matching Saidatu’s name and details entering the UK.
‘There are a number of reasons why this could be, and while it is a cause for concern, it is not necessarily an indication that she is at risk.’
Nearly nine months after her disappearance was first reported to the Met, officers launched an appeal in December on Twitter and shared her photograph.
The force said the girl could be ‘anywhere in the UK’.
There have been no other appeals for her since.
Saidatu had been registered at her school since January 24 last year and ‘little was known about her’.
She was not seen in classes the week before teachers alerted the police.
Police appeared to acknowledge that they didn’t release an image of Saidatu until several months since she had been reported missing.
Issuing photos of children is ‘not a decision taken lightly’, the police said today, given that public appeals ‘can leave a lasting digital trail’.
‘In December, a routine review of the case determined that having exhausted most realistic lines of enquiry, Saidatu’s image should be published to seek the public’s assistance,’ investigators said.
When asked why the Met took almost a year to launch an appeal for the whereabouts of Saidatu, officers referred back to today’s statement.
Dominic Norton, founder of Missing Black People, a resource centre for friends and families of missing Black people, accused the Met of ‘failing Saidatu and the wider community’.
‘There needs to be justice for the family and restorative action institutional to ensure this doesn’t happen again and quickly,’ he told Metro.co.uk.
‘If we do not see this addressed appropriately, it will confirm what many in the Black community believe about the performative actions of those that are in position to serve us.’
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