Saruti

Sadly, Linda and Sal were morbidly obese.

There's no other way to put it.

And they were incredibly lazy people.

That's just how it was.

And Linda was actually even losing a leg due to complications from diabetes brought on by her incredibly sedentary lifestyle.

And seemingly, the pair used little Katie as their chief cook and bottle washer.

Or in Katie's words, their slave.

So yes, this obsession with this little girl is not out of the goodness of their hearts, it would appear.

From the age of just three or four, the pair would send Katie out into the freezing streets alone, often without a coat or even shoes, to run errands for them.

Like washing their clothes at the local laundrette, grabbing endless junk food from local takeaways, or even, and this is just like the most 90s thing you're going to hear, even sending her to the local corner shop to buy them cigarettes.

Ah, yes.

And yes, the shop did sell cigarettes to a four-year-old.

Mm-hmm.

Because her guardians...

had taken care to write a little note for the shopkeeper explaining that, don't worry, the cigarettes aren't for this little girl.

She's just buying them for us and don't worry about the fact she hasn't got any shoes on.

This was all happening very much out in the open.

None of this, none of how the Illigaris were treating Katie was a secret.

In fact, local business owners, when Katie was reported missing and there was a lot of attention on the case, told the media that they'd felt desperately sorry for the little girl, who they described as kind of like a Dickensian waif, always seen dirty, skinny and with matted hair.

And clearly she was absolutely terrified of Sal and Linda.