In an emotional meeting in her Westminster office, Minister Jess Phillips heard from missing teenager Deante James’s family about the nightmare they are living every day
Home Office Minister Jess Phillips has spoken of her heartbreak at hearing from the family of missing teenager Deante James.
In an emotional meeting at her Westminster office, the top minister heard from the 17-year-old’s mum Vandana Bhogowoth, 36, and his sister Jaidamia James, 19, about the nightmare they are living every day.
Vandana told the minister she felt Deante’s case was not being treated as a priority. She said: “I live in Enfield, my son is Black, I feel ever since I made a police report it’s just been treated not as a priority – just another boy, maybe in a gang, maybe selling [drugs]. “But that’s just not him. He was not interested in none of that.”
Ms Phillips replied: “Even if it was, he’s just a kid who needs help and support. I’m not saying it is but that shouldn’t make any difference. If kids are going missing, they are going missing.”
READ MORE: ‘My teen son is missing after being spiked – I’m shocked at huge police mistake’
The Metropolitan Police said officers are working around the clock to find Deante and an appeal was issued last week (May 2) for information.
“I feel like we’re really, really alone. I feel like we’re doing jobs that other people should do. Printing hundreds of posters, putting it out there. My daughter did a TikTok that got over 70,000 views and we’re doing all the social media.
“Every day the police were like, ‘what’s the new lead, give us the number’. We would tell them.” She added: “I felt there was no sense of urgency and I don’t know why.”
Ms Phillips said: “You’re a mum desperate to find her son. However you are feeling about it, we have to listen.”
While she has no role in individual cases as the police are independent, Ms Phillips said her focus is on ensuring everyone gets equal treatment.
“Undoubtedly there is unfairness and discrepancies that happen in the system, but the system [has to be] fundamentally making sure that protocols are in place and information sharing [is done right],” she said.
“It’s not the first time I’ve heard a complaint that people didn’t feel like missing people were taken seriously or that something was missed because of this break down in the system. So I hear you.”
Ms Phillips said there’s “no good victim… that should be a thing very much of the past”. “It’s a well known fact that missing incidences are flags for a number of different vulnerabilities. It should always be taken seriously and the agencies involved should be linked up to make sure that they have the appropriate response.
“Things fall down cracks often. But it’s never good that you have to keep justifying it because it shouldn’t matter if he’s the naughtiest boy on earth.”
Speaking to the Mirror afterwards, Ms Phillips, whose brother used to go missing, said it was a “form of torture” to not know where your loved ones are.
She endured years of heartbreak over her brother Luke, who spent time sleeping rough during a battle with drug and alcohol addiction that lasted more than two decades. He is now sober and the siblings have rebuilt their relationship.
Ms Phillips said: “Your heart breaks for families in this situation. Having any relative missing is like a form of torture but your kid, as the mother of teenage sons myself, I feel it in my bones how awful this must be.
“And to feel you have to fight at the same time, I said to her, ‘I don’t know how she’s getting out of bed’. We should always be trying to design systems so people don’t feel like they have to fight for everything.”
Ms Phillips said victims families too often feel like they have to battle to be heard by difference agencies like the police or social services. She said: “You often hear the same thing again and again which is there needs to be a join up of services.”
She praised the Mirror’s Missed campaign, which is calling for better support for people who go missing and their families.
Ms Phillips said: “I am absolutely supportive of the aims and pay absolute credit to the Mirror for the work they have done in highlighting all sorts of different missing cases, because they are not all the same and yet I’d say almost certainly people always feel things could have been done better.
“That’s the thing that unites them. So looking at this particular area, it’s undoubtedly been highlighted to my office by this campaign and we will continue to do so.”
• The Mirror is using its platform to launch Missed – a campaign to shine a light on underrepresented public-facing missing persons in the UK in collaboration with Missing People Charity. Because every missing person, no matter their background or circumstances, is someone’s loved one. And they are always Missed.
READ MORE: Join our Mirror politics WhatsApp group to get the latest updates from Westminster
