CARLY Bateman smiled as a member of staff at the secure unit where she was living warned her to be careful.

It was a Saturday night, just after 11.30pm and she was off, as usual, to ply her trade on the streets of Bolton.

As she walked into the cold night, the teenager appeared not to have a care in the world.

But four hours later, her naked and emaciated body was discovered in undergrowth in a back alley in the heart of Bolton's red light area.

The waif-like 17-year-old, was 5ft 2ins tall and weighed just over six stones. But Carly preferred the cold and dark streets of Bolton to the comfort of her own home.

The thin, malnourished teenager who was found in a back alley was a far cry from the happy-go-lucky youngster who had grown up in a middle class family.

As a child, Carly was a fun-loving girl. She was a pretty, blue eyed blonde with a strong personality. But she had a caring and sensible side.

Even as a baby she faced problems that set her apart from other babies.

Carly was diagnosed with a rare milk allergy. It caused her constant pain for the first eight months of her life.

Doctors feared for her health and issued a unique appeal to new Bolton mums urging them to donate all the breast milk they could spare to enable Carly to survive.

Many new mothers did come forward and their milk helped her pull her through.

At four, she was found to be an insulin diabetic, but even at such a young age she was able to monitor her own illness and administer her medication.

Her sister Lianne remembers how the two of them would laugh, cry and argue, like any other sisters. Carly's cheeky smile would always melt hearts.

But at the age of 12, it all started to go wrong. She began seeing an older boy who introduced her to cannabis and she soon turned to stronger drugs. Her family battled in vain to help her.

Her parents, Vanessa and Alan, who also have a son Simon, would often carry her home kicking and screaming. They organised trips to the ice rink, bowling alley - anything to take her mind off drugs. But Carly would run away and not return for days or even weeks.

In desperation they sent her to private boarding school. She ran away after a week and went back to her boyfriend.

After her divorce from Carly's father, her mother moved to Doncaster and took the troubled teenager with her, hoping she could start afresh.

But Carly did not stay long. She headed back to Bolton.

At the age of 14, she left home and lived in various children's homes and local authority accommodation.

She still kept in touch with her parents. Her father fondly remembers her being driven past his home and shouting at him through the open window: "I love you dad".

Her family were heartbroken as they watched helplessly as she slipped further into the seedy world of drugs and vice.

They enlisted the help of social services and Carly herself signed up for various drug programmes. But this proved fruitless. The only way she could find to fund her habit was to sell her body on the streets of Bolton.