2025-12-05
31 分钟This is The Guardian.
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When I met Craig, he was 13 and homeless.
I still thought his life might turn around.
I was tragically wrong.
Written and read by Pamela Gordon.
Craig was a runaway when I first met him.
Missing from a local children's home, he spent his days hanging out in Nottingham City Centre.
He'd just turned 13 and he was tall for his age.
easily recognisable with his blonde hair, but he seemed invisible to the authorities.
No one was looking for him or the other dozen children who congregated on the market square.
Most of them had absconded from care.
Some were dodging school.
A few, like Craig's mate Mikey, just didn't bother going home.
The youngest runaway, Mark, claimed he'd been missing from foster care for months.
and he had spent his twelfth birthday on the run.
They were glad to have found each other, and for a week or so they slept together in an alleyway.
Craig organised bedding.