Damien went out one night with his pals, left them, was seen on his own later and never seen again.

Fact - he was 16 years old, still very young and still immature in many ways but he was growing into a really lovely young man with so much potential and with a promising future.
Fact - he was vulnerable.
Fact - he was reported missing the next day.
Fact - the police did not want to take it seriously and did nothing.
Fact - the family did the detective work.
Fact - the family found a video existed with Damien on it, surrounded by strangers in a chip shop.
Fact - the police never followed up on these strangers for 14 years.
Fact - there was a video of Damien on the street just after leaving the chip shop and the police lost it.
Fact - Damien's mother asked for years to find out who the men were on the chip shop video...
Fact - the police promised to find the men...
Fact - a documentary done in early 1997 identified two of the men as army and they said they did not know the other men in the video.
Fact - in 2011 the police identified all the men as being army - one wonders why it was denied and why it took 14 years to ascertain this fact?  The police have no answers.
Fact - the police told Damien's mother that she was wasting police time keep phoning for updates.
Fact - Damien's mothers friends were labeled by police as 'hysterical women'.
Fact - after two weeks, detectives were assigned.
Fact - a female detective was sexually harassed by fellow officers while working at Cowes Police station and while working on Damien's case.... they were obviously not working on Damien's case.
Fact - despite requesting that sniffer dogs and police spotter plane be deployed, it was refused by police.
Fact - Damien's dad, little brother and elderly grandfather searched the area in the rain with flashlights.
Fact - one sighting was reported in the first week, but the police said the source was 'unreliable'.
Fact - 14 months later, police decided to use search dogs in the area where Damien lived....off the back of 'new evidence', which was the same story we were told in the first week, which was ignored...
Fact - reconstruction of Damien's movements was requested by Damien's family and denied by police.
Fact - Damien's family asked for Crimewatch, it was refused
Fact - Damien's family requested a reward and were refused consistently.  Local businesses were actively discouraged from getting involved.
Fact - Damien's own family started their own reward in 2011.....
Fact - Police then decided to offer a reward...it lasted six months..
Fact - Police turned Damien's case into a murder enquiry after 14 YEARs and arrested 8 people.
Fact - Police hoped to have the suspects turn on one another - it failed
Fact - searches of a pond and chalet turned up nothing despite large scale publicity of this search...
Fact - police told Damien's family they had identified a suspect on the chip shop video and he was a drug dealer who had just died of an overdose.....so it took them 8 years to identify a known drug dealer on the chip shop video?
Fact - police took the chip shop video away, out of the Nettles family possession, for 'enhancement'. The video returned minus the first and last few minutes which included a police car outside the chip shop.....why would they cut that out?  For sound operational reasons we are told....
Fact - since the reward ended in April 2013 the family have been kept waiting for information about a report that the Senior Investigating officer was to submit to his superior.  At the time of writing this factual blog, we have still had no update or information as to what conclusions have been drawn in this case......
FACT - we have not been well served in this case over the years, we have had lots of promises and no action.  It was 14 years after Damien disappeared before arrests made.  The prime suspect died in 2003.....what did the police ever hope to achieve?  They hoped that the arrested would turn on each other...but it turned out to be a pointless and expensive gamble.

www.damiennettles.com

June 21, the longest day, summer solstice and your birthday….

Here we are again, another birthday Damien and still no idea what happened to you.  You are never forgotten.  We think of you all the time, every day, with such fondness.  I wish you were here with us and we could celebrate your birthday with you, all of us together as a whole family again. 

I never, ever, thought this would happen to our family, but here it is, and we are dealing with this best we can.  But we will always want you in our lives and we will always miss you.  You are fondly remembered by so many whose lives you touched.   Your humor and your creativity and sensitivity all rolled up into one large somewhat silly, amusing, sometimes annoying, but gentle giant.  Now, after all this time we all still feel your loss.  We won’t move on. We won’t have closure.  We will carry you in our hearts and we will always have the memories.  And we will never give up looking for you.