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Dublin: 12 °C Sunday 19 May, 2013

Gardaí seek help tracing missing 16-year-old

Naomi Whittington was last seen at around 1am today in Ashford Co Wicklow.

Missing teenager Naomi Whittington
Missing teenager Naomi Whittington
Image: Garda Press Office

GARDAÍ ARE APPEALING for assistance from the public in finding a 16-year-old girl who went missing overnight.

Naomi Whittington was last seen at around 1am in Ashford, Co Wicklow.

The teenager is described as being 5′ 5″, of thin build, with blue eyes. When last seen she was wearing a salmon-coloured top with a purple oversized hoody, jeans, and white boots.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Wicklow Garda Station on 0404 60140, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda station.

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Comments (50 Comments)

  • how many times has this young one gone missing? seriously social services need to get involved at this stage, unless she is already I’m care and she keeps absconding, then her care plan needs to be looked at and changed.

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  • Christine, I think media sites such as The Journal is a great help for cases like this. But on the other hand this lass goes missing on regular basis and in fairness people will have an opinion on such things. I hope this girl IS found safe and has come to no harm. I really do believe that social services need to be more involved now as something is wrong in this girls life, and she gets the help she needs as it uses resources that might be needed else where.

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    • Cheers Pip. It’s a tough one. Obviously people want to comment on this, but there’s a line between people talking about how often she has run away in the past year and people speculating about what’s going on in her life. Does that make sense? It’s fine if people want to discuss issues about missing people and garda resources, but talking about what’s happening in a 16-year-old’s life when there are no facts in the public domain is more problematic.

      [Also, I'm not aiming this at you, obviously! Just responding to what you said].

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    • I hate censorship, but there is one solution-just close missing person threads to comments, as is done with ongoing legal cases.

      I think myself that this is most likely yet another spurious wild goose chase with this one, but I’d feel fairly rotten, as I’m sure would the family involved, should it not turn out to be so.

      Anyway, it doesn’t help anyone to have a speculative discussion on this, it’s a fruitless exercise.

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    • The resources are needed here not else where.

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  • I meant to point out also what the hell is a 16 y. o kid doing out til 1 I’m the morning?

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  • Christine I understand what your saying, but people are people and they will speculate. I personally believe that there is something going on in this child’s life that she repeatedly runs away. The other poster has a point that if the journal don’t want comments to be made, then close it to comments. I appreciate what you are saying and I really do hope she is ok.

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  • I’m starting to wonder if these kids are using sites like the journal to get a bit of attention. Hasn’t this kid gone missing a few times now?

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  • Another “cry wolf”.

    Surely this girl should get her own app that shows her missing every 2 weeks.

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  • Yet again she is gone missing. Do child services not know she needs help!

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  • Hopefully she is safe and well and finds support and sorts out whatever is upsetting her She is 16 years and not a great time for a lot of 16 year olds so I wish her the best of luck and hopefully she will find that Person/s that can and will help her

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  • ok after reading some of the comments I will make one of my own.
    it seems this girl has had a very difficult upbringing and has had to grow up fast. and we all remember what its like to be 16 we think we know everything . I would hopefully think she’s just with a friend and think she’s growing up enough that she feels she doesn’t have to report to anyone let’s hop she turns up in her own good time .

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  • LOOK AT ME!
    LOOK AT ME!
    LOOK AT ME!

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  • howzat 24/03/12 #

    This girl will make a mockery of what you are trying to do cry wolf and all that jazz
    I think it’s great what your doing but sometimes you have to be selective

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  • *in care*

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  • That’s exactly what I was thinking pip after all she is only 16 and yes we all thought we knew it all at that age but it’s sounds as if this girl hasnt had the best of childhoods so maybe just needs some extra TLC and understanding..

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  • Who cares if she went missing 500 times in the last year. A family’s daughter is out there somewhere and anything could happen. What would happen if your mother sister or daughter went missing ya’s wouldn’t be slagging about it on this would ya’s heartless or what that’s to everyone who posted hatefulness above >:[

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  • @Tom . I can only justify myself here but I just want to say that 1) I am not heartless and 2) I am not hateful. . As I have said I’m previous posts I hope this child found ok. But the fact that she has gone missing many times since last year should kinda raise a red flag.Who ever is caring for her is not doing a good enough job. if it was child it wouldn’t happen. and if it did. it would be a once off because I would hope that I would be responsible enough to get help for them . The other thing is that, on a site that is open to the public, people are entitled to post their opinions and that is what’s happening here. people posting their opinions. Weather you like it or not. And yes people will be pissed off that this kid keeps running away and probably a lot of man hours are put into looking for her when she is probably hiding out in a friends house. . Its not nice for this child. But something needs to happen for her before something does happen TO her.

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  • Hi Christine, theJournal.ie also has a responsibility to decide if it is to post appeals for repeat offenders which may take interest away from those people who go missing in unusual circumstances and may have come to some harm…….

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  • When I saw her photo I remembered her name before I read it, the only point I’m making is that can’t be right.
    Irrespective of why she’s missing she is only 16 someone must be letting her down big time.

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  • Seriously another attention seeker???? She probably got the shift, went home with a fella and hasn’t woken up yet.

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    • John, as I said above, we’re asking people not to speculate because it’s a 16-year-old girl we’re talking about here.

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    • Please spare us the holier than thou spiel Christine.

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    • Ouch.

      There’s a line between people talking about how often she has run away and people speculating about what’s going on in her life. So it’s fine if commenters want to discuss garda resources and other issues about missing people but it becomes more problematic when people start talking about what’s going on in a 16-year-old’s life when there’s no facts available.

      So basically: it’s not about being holier than thou, it’s about the discussion on stories like this and what we can do to make sure that it stays on track.

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  • I hope she turns up safe and sound .

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  • Cindy I agree with you. And I was just having a look and this kid went missing from Cork Dublin and now Wicklow . I really think this kid is in care. if this is the case but her case/care workers need to step. I have worked with kids like this that were repeatedly running away. but her case/care workers need to step

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    • what should have gone on the end of that post was * I have worked with kids that have repeatedly run away and they usually go back to the same places. someone needs to talk to this kid and break the cycle and find out what’s wrong with her. I do hope she’s ok cos really like you said. at 16 we think we know it all but really know nothing .

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  • This kid is like a broken boomerang, FFS! And, as was pointed out further up this thread, if you don’t want people to comment/ speculate on where she is and what she’s up to, why even open the comments comments for this story? People are getting a bit fed up of hearing about this little brat wasting garda time and resources.

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  • Didn’t take long for her to be reported missing…surely there are people who genuinely have went missing that deserve more attention here rather than this one who has been listed as “missing” numerous times! I hope she is okay though.

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  • AGAIN ????

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  • Hi everyone – it would be good if this comment thread doesn’t get bogged down with speculation. Regardless of the circumstances, a 16-year-old has gone missing and gardaí are doing everything they can to find her.

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  • Give her a role in TALLAFORNIA .

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  • The gardai have more important things to be doing than looking for a selfish attention seeker.
    A spell in a detention centre for wasting gardai time would do her no harm at all

    Reply

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