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Original poster

New development on missing Andrew Gosden case.

218 replies

ClaraThePigeon · 11/01/2022 14:06

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-59952786

I hope that this latest development gives that poor boy's family answers, terrible as they may be. I can't imagine the hell they've had to live with every day since his disappearance.

OP posts:
SirVixofVixHall · 14/01/2022 19:06

The complete mystery of why he went, whether he went to meet someone or was approached by a random person, it is all so strange. No computer, no mobile . He looks so small and fragile emerging from the concourse.

goldenbag · 14/01/2022 22:55

I've never forgotten that case. Hope they get some answers.

ENoeuf · 14/01/2022 23:08

It is odd. I thought at first he was a runaway but the police don’t seem to have ever thought this? I think I assumed he was unhappy and running away (taking money, single ticket etc) but really that poor child appears to have been tricked into a terrible outcome.

CherryFlavourOwl · 14/01/2022 23:31

the men they've arrested were found with indecent images of children- some of which it seems obvious were of Andrew - so that's probably the first 'evidence' in all these years of what happened to him.

highly unlikely these men themselves kidnapped him or trafficked him - although who knows? Seems to me that they're connected with having indecent images and it's now trying to find out why. The investigation will be centred around the very long job of trying to trace these photos back to the original source

I've always thought he was groomed, seems the most likely scenario. Just because they police couldn't trace where he'd been groomed doesn't mean it hadn't happened

Just awful for the family

LandlordWorries · 15/01/2022 01:41

@ENoeuf

It is odd. I thought at first he was a runaway but the police don’t seem to have ever thought this? I think I assumed he was unhappy and running away (taking money, single ticket etc) but really that poor child appears to have been tricked into a terrible outcome.
I agree, this is what I've always thought, but such a mystery as to how? As he didn't seem to have been in contact with anybody. No 'net access, no 'phone etc.

There's a good subreddit about him. I often wonder if It's in poor taste to discuss someone's tragedies like this but then I feel no, It's more important to keep people interested and concerned.

And yes, just HOW did these men end up with images of him (do we have a source for that? I'll google).

KloppsTeeth · 15/01/2022 01:59

Heartbreaking. I remember this so well, and how it was so strange. My youngest son looks a lot like him now.

I feel so sad that he was being bullied too, life can be so very cruel.

timtam23 · 15/01/2022 10:50

It's just so baffling that he did seem to have planned this trip, he went back to his house when everyone else had left, got changed etc, insisted on a one-way ticket - and yet there seem to have been no real clues either then or now as to where he was going and why. I was thinking back to 2007 and although it's not that long ago it was totally different in terms of internet usage, social media, mobile phones etc. It's reported that Andrew didn't have a working mobile, didn't have an email address, no evidence that he had been using the internet at any location outside the home, his gaming console hadn't been used for messaging/live chat. All those things are what you'd immediately think of and they all drew a blank. I do hope this new lead can help the investigation, the family have had no answers for so long.

FlexibleWorkingDenied · 15/01/2022 11:03

The men who have been arrested are 38 and 45 so would’ve been 23 and 30 when Andrew went missing 15 years ago.

KatherineJaneway · 15/01/2022 11:59

Patrick Warren and David Spencer are the most horrendously under reported missing children. The fact that it happened in the 90's and yet no one knew or cared.

@Whydoyoucareaboutthis Do they not have a prime suspect in this case but just have no evidence to make the charge?

Jacaranda75 · 15/01/2022 12:02

Does anyone remember talk of a Gifted & Talented summer camp that Andrew attended? Apparently another boy from the summer camp disappeared the previous year. Did they ever find him? Is it possible that Andrew was groomed at the camp?

ESGdance · 15/01/2022 12:23

@ENoeuf

The other boy is called Alex Sloley (I remember the case but not the name, had to google). Weird it’s not more well known - he was 16 and just vanished on his way home.
@Jacaranda75
UnconditionalSurrender · 15/01/2022 12:31

I often think of him as we had one of the missing people posters with him on it near us and my DS and I passed it every day on the way to school. When the poster was replaced after a few years DS kept asking if they had found the boy on the poster and I hadn't even known he'd noticed it. It broke my heart for that poor boy and his family.

Jacaranda75 · 15/01/2022 12:52

@ESGdance did Alex also attend the same G&T camp?

I wonder why police rules out this person as Andrew? He looks remarkably like him and has the same nickname. Could be a troll, I suppose.

RamblinBoy · 15/01/2022 12:54

I often think of this case as I once read an article written by his father and it was devastating. I cannot imagine not knowing where my child was. I hope the family gets some answers. Humans are so, so fucking cruel.

ENoeuf · 15/01/2022 12:56

@Jacaranda75 can you really not be bothered to scroll back? There’s only three pages so far.

TidyDancer · 15/01/2022 12:56

@KatherineJaneway

Patrick Warren and David Spencer are the most horrendously under reported missing children. The fact that it happened in the 90's and yet no one knew or cared.

@Whydoyoucareaboutthis Do they not have a prime suspect in this case but just have no evidence to make the charge?

Yes they do. This was featured on a cold case documentary Emilia Fox was involved in last year. Lots wrong with the investigation.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisappearanceoffPatrickWarrennandDavidd_Spencer

Jacaranda75 · 15/01/2022 12:58

@ENoeuf what are you talking about? I have read all the posts.

ENoeuf · 15/01/2022 12:59

So you’ll know my post was answering the question about the other missing boy from the camp.

Jacaranda75 · 15/01/2022 13:01

@ENoeuf there is no mention on Wikipedia of Alex Sloely attending the same camp, so I thought there was another boy.

Why do you have to be so rude?

ENoeuf · 15/01/2022 13:02

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

Jacaranda75 · 15/01/2022 13:05

@ENoeuf I didn't miss it, I just thought there was another boy who attended the camp.

God, there are some horrible people on this site.

ENoeuf · 15/01/2022 13:24

I’m not really interested - please stop @ing me with whatever hurt feelings you’ve acquired. Sorry you’re offended about it all but it’s kind of off topic really.

Jacaranda75 · 15/01/2022 13:28

@ENoeuf I suggest you leave the thread. This discussion is about a missing child, not a platform for you to take out your personal frustrations on other posters.

SisterJude · 15/01/2022 13:29

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

KloppsTeeth · 15/01/2022 13:31

I was talking about this to a friend this morning. She reminded me that he was deaf in one ear and very short sighted, which adds to his vulnerability.

She was hopeful that he is alive and, because of his very gifted mathematical abilities, had been “acquired” as an asset by a foreign government if they had discovered him at the gifted and talented camp. But the development of the arrests suggests that the police have some evidence of indecent images of Andrew.