#paigechivers

Paige Chivers was a 15-year-old girl who went missing in 2007. She is now known to have been a victim of Robert Ewing.

Paige Emily Chivers' troubled life began to spiral out of control when in 2005, aged 13-years-old, she was expelled from school and began drinking heavily and smoking cannabis. Her father was accused of physically abusing her and was seldom at home to help his children. In May 2007 Paige was thinking about going back to education and was in contact with Connexions, a council-run service for young people. On 23rd August 2007, Paige and her father had an argument in which her father said he would 'kill her' when she returned home. When Paige did not return home initially her father was not worried, Paige had stayed with friends before, however 3 days later when she had still failed to return home he contacted the police.

When Paige was reported missing the police operator incorrectly recorded her date of birth as 1962 not as 1992 and also recorded that she had left home voluntarily despite her being a minor. Vital days were lost as officers were under the impression the missing person was a 45-year-old woman who had chosen to leave home and not a vulnerable child. This mistake was not rectified until 7th September. This 12-day delay could have made the difference between Paige's life and death and gave her killer time to hide evidence, the jury heard she was murdered within a 4-day time frame of leaving home. Blood spots containing Paige's DNA were found at Ewing's flat, he claimed it was from a cut on her arm but experts testified it was too much blood to be from one cut. A piece of carpet had been replaced.

Disturbing details became apparent- Paige had stayed overnight at Ewing's flat before, he was 52 at the time, in fact, Ewing often allowed young girls to smoke, drink and take drugs in his flat. Ewing also had previous convictions for child sex offences. It was found that Ewing had an inappropriate sexual interest in Paige and exploited and groomed her. Photos were found in his apartment of Paige with her top pulled up and the word 'sex' and a downwards pointing arrow drawn on her stomach. Less than 2 weeks before Paige went missing Ewing also contacted the police anonymously to find out what would happen if a 'problem child,' turned up on his doorstep, this was described by prosecutors as him 'testing the water' and he was reassured that they would do 'very little.' Ewing was described as a 'devious' paedophile who murdered Paige to stop her from reporting their sexual contact.