Missing girls found 'safe and well'

Published on Sunday 25 January 2004 00:00

TWO schoolgirls who went missing from their north London homes were found "safe and well", police said last night.

Denise Robotham, 12, and Sinead Ormand, 13, had not been seen since they left their homes on Friday afternoon.

Police had been growing increasingly concerned over the whereabouts the pair who they believed had gone to meet someone they met over the internet.

However, Scotland Yard said the youngsters were found last night at a campsite in Folkestone, Kent, and were taken to a nearby hospital where Ormand was being kept in overnight for observation. Robotham has been discharged.

Police said "both appear safe and well".

The girls were thought to have disappeared on a "teenage adventure". They left their homes with 100, some spare clothes and a tent, and were initially thought to be heading to Norfolk.

Police believe they had been planning the trip for some time.

With heavy snow and freezing temperatures forecast to hit Britain over the next few days, police were growing increasingly worried for their safety. But the pair were recognised by an ambulance crew called to a campsite in Folkestone to treat two young girls who were feeling ill.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "An ambulance crew member attended and the girls were taken to a Kent hospital.

"The ambulance crew recognised them as possibly being the missing girls - and hospital staff confirmed it by viewing photos of the girls on the internet."

Officers have travelled to the hospital and spoken to the girls who said they went to Kent to meet boys they met on the internet.

Yesterday afternoon police said they had identified three 14-year-old boys from Norfolk who admitted contact with the girls over the past few weeks.

Police said they believe the girls had offered to come to see them, but the boys declined and insisted the girls had never been to their homes.