08/07/2003

Missing six-year-old girl found safe and well

A six-year-old girl has been found safe and well following a major overnight hunt after she was reportedly seen being bundled into a car.

The girl Summer Haipule was reported as missing from outside her home in Moulsecoomb on the suburbs of Brighton at around 17.30 on Monday evening.

A 13-year-old boy had claimed yesterday that he saw the girl being dragged into a car. However, this morning a neighbour informed police officers that she had been found the girl under a cot at her house. It is understood that police, who visited the house but did not conduct a search, may launch an investigation into the incident.

The girl emerged from the house, just a few doors away from her home, in the arms of her relieved mother. Declining comment to reporters she took the girl back to her own house.

Chief Superintendent Paul Curtis said he was pleased at the happy outcome, but that an investigation would be conducted to try and determine how the girl had wandered into the neighbour’s house and slept for over 12 hours without being noticed.

The 13-year old boy was described by a police source as a “credible witness”.

The incident sparked the first ever use of the Sussex Child Rescue Alert system. Though police confirmed that part of the service, an SMS text messaging system that uses mobile phones to raise the alarm, did not function as intended, the system had worked well.

(SP)

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