Pair remanded on child detention charges

Two have been charged under the Child Abduction Act

A man and a woman have appeared in court in Lancashire charged with unlawfully detaining four girls - one of whom has since died.

Sally Corkhill, 40, and Lee Harrison, 31, are both charged on four counts under the Child Abduction Act.

They are alleged to have allowed Melissa Strickson, 13, and three other girls to stay at their home in Sudell Road, Darwen, Lancashire.

Corkhill also faces one charge of supplying a class C drug to her partner, Harrison.

Melissa Strickson died

They were remanded in custody for a week by magistrates in Blackburn.

Melissa Strickson died last week after apparently taking tablets of Diazepam.

She and three other girls had been reported missing.

One was in a critical condition after being found.

Two 11-year-old girls did not need hospital treatment.

The three children cannot be identified for legal reasons.