Posted on 11/30/2004 5:25:06 PM PST by saquin
WHEN Chloe Riley, 14, arrived home from school to find her mother had walked out and left her to fend for herself, she set out to do just that. For a fortnight she carried on as normal, keeping up her schoolwork and telling no one that her mother, Stephanie, an IT teacher, had disappeared.
But when she returned home to find the locks changed, she had to accept that she had been abandoned. Her mother had cancelled the tenancy on the council house they had shared in the Wirral and moved in with her lover. For two months the girl had no contact with her mother, except a text message. She is now being cared for by a half sister, Lisa McLoughlin.
Merseyside Police and social workers from Wirral Council are investigating. A police spokesman said: “We received a report from Wirral social services that Chloe was abandoned by Stephanie. Officers from the family support unit have been holding joint strategic meetings with social workers. We want to talk to Mrs Riley and would appeal to anybody who knows her whereabouts — even Mrs Riley herself — to contact the family support unit.”
Chloe’s father, Robbie Riley, a well-known boxer on Merseyside, died in December, 2002, after a long illness. Friends and well-wishers raised thousands of pounds to meet the family’s expenses, pay for a headstone and Chloe’s travel costs from her home in Birkenhead to St Mary’s College, in Wallasey.
Relatives described how Mrs Riley, 39, changed after the death of her husband. She remodelled herself, with a new hair colour and slimmer figure, and is now said to be living with her 29-year-old lover in Haydock.
Social services staff said that Mrs Riley disappeared in early October. Chloe continued travelling to St Mary’s College, kept up with her homework and housework, but told no one, all the time hoping that her mother would return. When council workmen changed the locks, thinking the house was empty, Chloe tried to telephone her mother but the number had been changed.
Chloe was finally forced to accept her predicament and seek refuge with her half sister. Ms McLoughlin, 29, a care home worker, took her in with the few clothes and possessions she could salvage.
“Chloe has been distraught,” Ms McLoughlin said. “She thought her mum would come back and she didn’t want to bother me.
“Chloe had lost a lot of weight but she is with me now. She is happier and eating well, and doing her homework every night. I suppose that is all that matters. But I am not her mother and it must hurt.
“Every night I hear her crying for mum and dad. What child deserves that?” Ms McLoughlin said: “Chloe lost our dad. Then her mother ran off, and now we both feel abandoned by social services. I am a single parent with two kids under seven. I work three days a week because that is all the childcare I can afford.
“We only have each other and I would do anything for Chloe, but it is a struggle because I have got nothing to give her, except love.”
Yikes.
What a terrible thing for a 14 year old to realize. Sheesh! What's into people?!
There must be a song in this some where.
See at first I thought "mum" had run off with the 14 year
olds lover, now THAT would have been a story!
This poor young woman doesn't have a Mom. She has a woman who gave birth to her.
I hope this experience will make her stronger, and thank God she has a relative who cares enough to take her in.
As for the "mom", well, what goes around, comes around, eventually.
Well, who can blame the woman. Maybe she was in love. Maybe she needed to "find herself". Maybe she just needed some "me time". Why let a child stand in the way of you and self fulfillment?
Utterly disgraceful.
The hottest place in hell should be reserved for those who abuse or neglect a child.
could not agree more whiny kids hell shes 14 at 14 i had to walk to and from school uphill both ways
True ---- the same reason many women pay to have their babies killed --- so they don't get in the way.
sounds like phil hendrie is writing the headlines again.
Is the mother's "lover" a woman? Just a wild guess.
Were this an American article, I would be sure of it. Nobody in the news media uses the word "lover" like this. Conceivably it's different in the UK however.
I've tears in my eyes thinking about this poor child.
God help her. She lost her dad, and was completely abandoned by her mother.
Dear Lord, please help her to stay sane, safe and strong.
ping
Modern parental responsibility. I bet she votes leftist.
I know a guy whose two daughters moved in with him after the ex-wife's lover made a pass at the older one --- when she informed her mother about what happened, the mother blamed her for trying to seduce her lover and told her to leave. Leave a house that her own father had bought but which now had another man living in it after the wife won the house in the divorce.
As a result, I would conclude that the "lover" is a female.
I just don't know if "lover" is as uncommon in the UK press, so I can't draw that conclusion here.
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