Gazette THE ISLE OF WIGHT
THE ISLAND PEOPLE’S PAPER
Friday November 5, 2010 Issue 75
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CARISBROOKE TO OSBORNE IT’S ALL ON OUR NEW MONOPOLY BOARD
SPOOKTACULAR GOINGS ON TO CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN ON THE ISLAND
KELLY DROPS HEPTATHLON TO BOOST HOPES OF OLYMPIC GAMES SPOT
See page 21
See page 30
See page 47
DISTRAUGHT MOTHER: BRING DAMIEN HOME ISLAND EXCLUSIVE BY JASON KAY VALERIE NETTLES, the mother of Damien Nettles who went missing on the Island 14 years ago this week, admits she spends every day agonizing over what happened to her son. Mrs. Nettles has spoken exclusively to The Gazette about the anguish she stills suffers over the mystery disappearance. She now lives in the United States as do her three other children. In an emotional plea, she said: “I just need to know what happened to him. If my son is dead and lying out there I want
live with it. I don’t think there are words to describe how I cope. You just do what you have to do every day but it’s always there. “At some level you have to keep your emotions hidden away, as you do have work and try to be a ‘normal’ person. But at the same time I have this thing going on in my soul in my heart - my son!
to know. I want to bring him home and bury him. I just want to take care of him. I’m not looking for recrimination or blame. I just want Damien back.” She continued: “I think Continued on page 3 about how his birthday should be a celebration. But it just marks another day without knowing were Damien went. Life doesn’t go on, I think it just becomes the new normal that you have to live in. I once said that if anything happened to one of my children I would die. But you somehow just keep on living and you learn to
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The Gazette, Friday, November 5, 2010
‘DAMO’ APPEAL GOES ON
ON A WET and stormy November night exactly 14 years ago Island teenager Damien Nettles went out for the evening, but never returned. Damien, then aged 16, went into a fish and chip shop in Cowes. He was seen on CCTV at ‘Yorkies’ at around 11:35pm. Since that night of November 2, 1996, there has been no trace of Damien, whose family then lived in Woodvale Road, Gurnard. “Damo”, as he was known to his friends, had a great sense of humour. He had an unusual mannerism of blowing on his thumb, in the way that tennis players are often seen doing. He was also an accomplished musician, playing guitar and trombone, and was looking forward to a try-out with friends with hopes of being involved in the formation of a small band. Damien also enjoyed computer games and sea fishing and occasionally used weights and body building equipment. Damien was developing into a deep thinker and had taken an interest in psychology, often discussing the subject with his older sister. At the time he disappeared he was a tall, slim lad, about 6ft 3ins, and still growing. He had a short hair cut, but was known to favour longer hair. He had talked about growing a beard, probably favouring a goatee style. He had a small scar under his chin. Although the CCTV footage from Yorkie’s fish and chip shop has been circulated widely over the past 14 years, some of the men seen in the shop at the same time as Damien have not been identified. The video can be viewed on Hampshire Constabulary’s website under the ‘Casebook’ section, which highlights ongoing investigations: www.hampshire.police. uk/Internet/news/casebook/index.htm This web page also includes an age progressed
Damien Nettles as a young teenager
image of Damien, aged 27, produced in 2007 by Missing People (formerly the National Missing Persons Helpline). June 21st 2010 marked Damien’s 30th birthday. At the time of his disappearance, he was wearing a black fleece jacket, dark blue jeans and black boots. Detective Inspector Nick Heelan of Hampshire Constabulary’s Major Crime Department said: “Police remain determined to find and pursue new leads into this unresolved missing person case after 14 years. The disappearance of Damien Nettles continues to have a considerable impact on the community of the Isle of Wight. “The Nettles family displays tremendous tenacity and courage in campaigning consistently to raise this case’s profile in an attempt to encourage new witnesses and evidence. We welcome the support of charities, professional partner agencies, local businesses and the community in reinforcing awareness of the family’s billboard campaign across the Island this year. “There has been an intermittent flow of information since 1996, and people have come forward years after Damien’s disappearance, suggesting there is still the possibility that members of the community have knowledge that could take the investigation forward. Detectives are keeping an open mind about what happened to Damien because a wide range of information has been received over the past 14 years.” Detective Inspector Heelan added: “I would ask anyone who was in and around Cowes on November 2, 1996 to search their memories of that date for the smallest piece of information or detail that may provide a promising line of enquiry into Damien’s movements and intentions on the night he was last seen.”
The Gazette, Friday, November 5, 2010
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‘EMPTY SPACE ALWAYS THERE’
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front find out if that information has provided anything new.” There have been some “It’s not like a lost puppy hurtful false alarms, with where you can just go out and Mrs. Nettles recalling: “It when get another one. I can’t replace was very upsetting Damien. I have another son, someone went to the police two daughters and three claiming that he knew what beautiful grandchildren, but had happened to Damien. I am always aware that there The man who was in prison is a hole in my life. There is at the time took the police to a space at the dinner table a field in Newchurch. But the when we all sit to together. person wasted the police time There is this person missing by trying to embrass a family who went out one night, was who lived nearby. I was very last seen on Cowes High upset and hurt by it.” Damien’s mother also Street and has never been claimed she was very upset seen again.” Police mislayed Mrs. Nettles continued: when “We as a family can’t come evidence of a CCTV tape, up with a reason why this showing Damien walking happened. There are so along a street earlier in the many families I have come evening. Police claimed the across who have loved ones tape had been sent to HQ at Netley for enhancement. who have gone missing. “But overall there isn’t a lot When Valerie asked to see of support out there for things the tape the police claimed like this. We end up doing a that Council taped over it. lot of the things ourselves. Valerie contacted the person There is nowhere you can in charge of the tapes who go. There is the missing stated ‘hand on heart’ that persons charity but they are the Police had signed for the unfunded and overwhelmed. tape, and taken it away. Police later told Valerie So we just keep up the fight and the focus so one day that the tapes were left at the someone will let us know Cowes Marina as it required specialist video equipment to where Damien is. “In January the police watch them. They didn’t have were making some more this equipment at Cowes enquiries after receiving new Police. The tapes were left information. The police have on the top of the recording kept in touch with me. They equipment with a rubber say that the case isn’t closed band around them mark for but their contact is very the Police. The Police claim limited. I get the odd email that the Council than taped from the police , but I don’t over them. “I would have thought think that I should have had to wait until nearly July to the tapes would have
been treated with more importance as they were evidence that could have helped find Damien,” said his distraught mother. “I will never let go. I thought after ten years that I would give up; it’s exhausting, very exhausting, “But I can’t just turn it off, Damien filled our lives with this wonderful personality for 16 years. Lots of people say that Damien fell in the sea. My husband and father went down to the harbour master, and he claimed that tide was out when Damien went missing just after midnight. Damien had a lot of respect for the sea. He was a very strong swimmer as well. If he’d fallen in he would have been able to get out.” Valerie added: “What I am dreading is in two years time if Damien is still lost. That will then be 16 years – as long I had him. I want to know; I need to know before that. It doesn’t matter how silly information may sound, just maybe we will get enough pieces of the jigsaw to make a picture to help find Damien.” A Hampshire Constabulary spokesman said: “The current Operation Ridgewood investigation team are aware of concerns raised about the handling of CCTV footage in 1996. A review of the exact circumstances surrounding what happened to this original evidence is part of ongoing enquiries led by the Major Crime Department.”
Above and below: the last footage of Damien
LORRAINE LENDS SUPPORT
Damians sister Sarah (left) and mother Valerie
WITH THE ANNIVERSARY of the disappearance of Damien, TV presenter Lorraine Kelly has launched a new fundraising appeal for the charity Missing People. Lorraine, a Patron of Missing People, is encouraging the public to ‘Join The Search’ by collecting loose change in disposable money boxes so that the charity can be a lifeline when someone disappears. Lorraine said: “More than 100,000 calls for help are made to Missing People each year. Sadly one in four cannot currently be answered. Just by
collecting loose change in a money box, you can help this independent charity to be a lifeline to every single caller in the Isle of Wight.” The family of Damien have been appealing for news of his whereabouts via a billboard in the heart of Newport. In addition to the billboard, volunteers with the YMCA Fairthorne Group have marked the occasion by wearing T-shirts featuring Damien’s image, and handing out posters made by the charity Missing People. Damien’s mother, Valerie, added: “We’d like to thank those who made
this possible, including Biltmore Printers, Wight Local, Wight Quote, Vectis Radio, IW Gazette, IW YMCA, the Print Store, the National Policing Improvement Agency and the charity Missing People. We hope this will encourage anyone who may have knowledge of what happened to come forward.” For further information about Damien, go to www. damiennettles.com. To request a free Missing People moneybox, call 020 8392 4521 or visit www. missingpeople.org.uk/ moneybox.