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Josh Bush - who went missing with 14-year-old schoolgirl - charged with child abduction

 

James Legge
Sunday 16 June 2013 18:48 BST

The 35-year-old who went missing with a 14-year-old girl has been charged with child abduction.

A four-day nationwide manhunt came to an end on Friday when John Bush was found with the schoolgirl near London's Euston Station.

She disappeared from her home near Doncaster, South Yorkshire, on Monday.

Bush was arrested at Euston by plain clothes British Transport Police officers who had been issued with photographs of the missing pair.

Until the sighting at Euston detectives had been trying to follow a trail that took the pair through several counties. Police said the girl was in local authority care and had been given a foster home on the Friday before she went missing.

The two were last known to have been in Doncaster on Tuesday, when they were seen together, but after a public appeal was made for the schoolgirl’s return other sightings were reported that took the pair ever closer to London.

The Ford Mondeo they were believed to have driven from Doncaster was abandoned in the village of Sproxton, near Melton Mowbray, in Leicestershire, where they stayed for a night at the Crown Inn.

Chris Edmonson, owner of the B&B pub, told Sky News: “The young girl looked fine, she was not distressed or anything. She looked safe. I thought it was his daughter."

Subsequent sightings were reported in Peterborough and Watford, and police, who were “hot on the trail”, suspected they were heading to London and perhaps abroad.

On Thursday night the pair tried to check into a hotel in Watford at 11pm but the card Bush wanted to use was declined.

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