Gymslip Drunks
As the numbers of binge-drinking teens rockets, we join the team trying to tackle the epidemic - and meet the girls who refuse to give up booze
Their trusting parents thought they were at a sleepover. And when police stopped three baby-faced 14-year-old girls in Merseyside at 9pm, they were certainly dressed for the occasion, in their thin cotton pyjamas.
But rather than being tucked up together, drinking hot chocolate and gossiping about clothes and make-up, they were drunk on cider, staggering around the streets with a group of older boys, ready and able to take advantage of them.
It's anyone's guess what would have happened to the trio if they hadn't been spotted by officers from Operation Staysafe in St Helens, Merseyside.
"It was the most distressing case I've seen since we started these patrols," says Chief Inspector Mike Constantine, who was in charge that evening. "I'm just pleased we got to them before they came to serious harm."
Instead the girls were taken to the local YMCA where they were given a serious talking to by social workers and police, before being handed over to their horrified parents.
Sadly, it's an all too familiar sight for Staysafe officers, who regularly patrol towns around the country in a bid to combat these baby-faced boozers.
The initiative was launched in 2007 in Liverpool, and was rolled out into 26 other cities four weeks ago in a bid to combat Britain's under-age drinking epidemic. Teenagers in the UK now drink more than anywhere else in Europe, and last year more than 5,000 schoolgirls, some as young as 10, ended up in hospital for drink-related problems. And bingeing is on the increase among teenage girls, with recent statistics by The Drinkaware Trust showing they're drinking more than boys.
Don Shenker, Chief Executive of Alcohol Concern, blames the rise on the bad example set by some boozing female celebrities, cheap alcohol and drink adverts aimed at women.
The result is a terrifying rise in violence by young female gangs. Last year there were almost 23,000 attacks carried out by young women, most of them drink related.
It all makes for sobering reading. And when we joined Operation Staysafe for a night in St Helens, we saw for ourselves the devastating effect alcohol is having on young and vulnerable teenage girls.
Each weekend, four police officers, two social workers and two youth workers scour the streets in a police minibus from early evening until midnight. Sixty per cent of those they pick up are girls aged 15-17.
We join them at 7pm on a chilly Friday night. Our first stop is the rough Parr district of town, after reports that children are drinking in a park there. A dozen young people are hiding under a bush, and the police focus their attention on a fresh-faced 16-year-old boy called Tom*. He angrily asks why he's been singled out.
"Because you're the youngest," comes the reply from Chief Inspector Constantine.
Youngsters picked up in St Helens are taken to the YMCA, where their family backgrounds are checked by social workers and a parent or guardian is contacted.
Cases can be referred to Family Support teams, parenting programmes or alcohol awareness projects - and social services can take further action, if necessary.
Tom admits he has downed eight cans of cider and boasts: "I won't damage my liver, and anyway, I'm not bothered."
But his attitude soon changes when he's told that his mum, who lives two miles away, is on her way to collect him. "She'll kill me," he mutters, head in his hands.
Tom's single mum is indeed upset when she arrives to be interviewed by social workers. She is furious with her son and drags him out, promising officers will never see him again.
Next to arrive at the centre are two sets of teenage girls. One pair, Helen* and Nadine*, are 12 and 15.
"My mum's going to go mad," says Helen tearfully. She and her older friend Nadine were spotted by officers at 9pm in a local park, shivering in flimsy cropped cardigans, leggings and ballet pumps and glugging from bottles of cider. Not even their heavy eyeliner and bright pink lipstick can disguise how young they are. Their initial show of bravado has been replaced by tearful pleas not to tell their parents.
The other two girls are both 15 and are obviously drunk. They stagger around the room giggling drunkenly, before collapsing, bleary-eyed, into two chairs. These schoolgirls have been found at a bus station in St Helens, 10 miles away from their homes in Liverpool, chatting to a much older man.
Katy*, the younger looking of the two, is wearing leggings and a hooded top with 'diva' emblazoned across it. Best friend Anna* has scraped-back bleached-blonde hair, and mascara smeared all down her cheeks.
"We just jumped on any old bus for a laugh," slurs Helen.
The female police officer takes a seat beside them and speaks to them sternly but gently, almost as though she is talking to a younger sister. "Do you realise the danger you have put yourself in? You could have been raped," she says. But this just makes the girls dissolve into further fits of drunken giggles.
As we await the arrival of their mothers, Chief Inspector Constantine insists that Operation Staysafe is working. In Merseyside alone, 730 children have been picked up since the scheme began, and antisocial behaviour carried out by youngsters has dropped by 25 per cent.
"We hope to make a big difference to the lives of some of the children, but there are others who you see time and time again. It's unrealistic to expect to change them all. However successful Staysafe is, there will always be teenage binge drinkers," he says.
They are words that certainly ring true when it comes to 18-year-old Ashleigh Hitter.
Nothing can put her off binge drinking - not even the fact that friends have posted humiliating pictures on the internet, showing her slumped on the toilet with her knickers down and lying on the floor in a club. Nor the fact that she regularly wakes up with vomit in her hair and covered in bruises, with little memory of the night before.
"I've had times when I don't remember parts of the night before and that can set my heart racing, wondering what I've done and how I've got home," she says.
In one weekend, the receptionist, from Lowestoft, Suffolk, will polish off half a litre of vodka, 10 shots of spirits, ¿a bottle of sparkling wine, a bottle of rosé wine and a few pints of cider.
"Mum tried to sit me down when I was younger and talk to me about it, but I just laughed and told her not to worry so much," says Ashleigh.
"I know there may be times where I compromise my safety, but mostly my friends and I look after each other."
And, for now at least, she's determined not to give up boozing.
"If I had to have my stomach pumped that might make me want to give up," she says.
"There will come a day when I won't want to go out every weekend and get so smashed, but for now I don't see what all the fuss is about. I'm just having fun." For alcohol advice and support, visit Drinkaware.co.uk or Alcoholconcern.org.uk.
'These girls are dying for a drink'
The health implications of binge drinking, particularly for teenage girls, are no laughing matter. Fabulous doctor Hilary Jones says: "It's no exaggeration to say these girls are drinking themselves into an early grave. Thousands of young people are already seeing the start of alcoholic liver disease. Long-term, they run the risk of early dementia, liver failure, and cancer of the gullet, stomach, pancreas and breast. In short, binge drinking is a health time bomb. We need to take action now, to stop a whole generation of women having severe problems later in life."
'Binge drinking almost paralysed me'
Gemma Baylis, 24, used to down 28 units on nights out, until tragedy struck
A drinker since the age of 13, Gemma Baylis spent most weekends downing alcohol in the park with friends. On an average night, Gemma, of Hillingdon, Uxbridge, would knock back a 250ml bottle of vodka mixed with coke, then head to a pub and drink two bottles of white wine.
However, Gemma's binge drinking came to an abrupt end after one horrific night out in April 2002, when she was 17.
"We'd been in a nearby town and had boarded the train home, when I passed out. I came round and was certain it was my stop, so I leapt up and shot out the doors," she says.
"But it wasn't my station so my friend grabbed my handbag and tried to pull me back inside. Then the doors shut, trapping my bag strap, which was wrapped tightly around my shoulder."
Gemma frantically tried to free herself, but couldn't. "The train began to pull off and I had to break into a run to keep up, but fell between the train and the platform and was dragged more than 10ft before my friends were able to pull the emergency cord," she remembers.
Gemma was rushed to hospital, where doctors told her she had crushed her pelvis and shattered her pelvic bone. She was lucky not to have been paralysed. She spent six days in hospital and, six months later, with the help of crutches, her bones fused together again. Since then, Gemma, now a mother to two-year-old Alexander, has barely touched a drop of alcohol.
"The accident gave me a wake-up call. If I still drank recklessly, I'd hate to think how my life would have ended up."
PHOTOGRAPHY: SYRIOL JONES, ABBIE TRAYLER-SMITH, MATT CORDY/GETTY IMAGES HAIR & MAKE-UP SARA BOWDEN *NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED
This article has 1 comment
I live in Parr, St helens and myself and other law abiding people are sick of the trouble these drunk kids cause.
The police seem powerless or maybe just not bothered. Cars, property are damaged on a nightly basis and we live in terror of these mindless yobs, scared to leave our homes empty at night, scared to challenge them incase we become another Gary Newlove.
By Parr resident. Posted May 8 2009 at 9:16 PM.