THE family of a murdered teenager who was found dumped in an alley in Bolton today made an emotional appeal for information.

Carly Bateman was strangled and her body left in a passageway off Crawford Avenue, The Haulgh, on Saturday night.

The 17-year-old drug addict was discovered shortly after 3.30am on Sunday and a post mortem examination revealed she died from compression injuries to her neck.

Police have confirmed Carly had been working as a prostitute in the area.

Carly's family have described her as a 'free spirit' who, while being loving and intelligent, was a law unto herself.

It was two years ago that they discovered she had developed a drug problem.

Since then they continuously tried to help her stop the habit.

They enlisted the help of social services to provide expert additional help.

Her mother Vanessa Stirling, who has remarried and now lives in Doncaster, said: "In the beginning we did everything, including take her home kicking and screaming to try to help her stop taking drugs.

"We would take her bowling, ice skating -- anything to keep her occupied rather than let her slip back again.

"But then she would just leave the house and not return for days, and you'd know it had started again.

"Sometimes we wouldn't hear from her for weeks and it was as if she didn't want to hear that we loved and cared for her, she didn't want to hear us asking her to come home.

"It seemed easier for her to pretend that no one cared, when the reality was the whole family was worried about her."

Her father, Alan, aged 44, who lives in Little Lever, said: "Because of her missing school, we were worried that she was falling behind in her work and wouldn't catch up, so we enrolled her in a private school.

"But just a few days after she started we got a call from the school saying Carly had been seen getting on a bus heading into town, and we knew that she had gone back to the drugs.

"Sometimes when she hadn't been home for a while, she would drive past and shout out 'I love you Dad' and then just carry on. It was heartbreaking, but there was nothing we could do."

Carly's mother appealed for people not to judge her daughter.

Mrs Stirling, who also has a son Simon, aged 27 and 21-year-old daughter Lianne, said: "She may have been a drug addict and a prostitute, but people shouldn't judge her.

"When lads use heroin, they steal and rob to keep their habit going. Many girls will become prostitutes to support their habit, and the only people they are hurting is themselves

"They are not out stealing or mugging elderly women, they are just hurting themselves.

"When people read she was mixed up with drugs, they will probably think her family didn't care, and they must be bad, but we did everything we could for Carly, she was loved and cared for and we were always trying to help her. There was a lot of good in her."

Murder squad detectives today appealed for anyone who knew Carly to come forward.

Detective Chief Inspector Tony Cook, who is leading the investigation, said: "It is vital that anyone who knew Carly comes forward and speaks to the police with whatever information they have.

"I would also ask anyone who was in The Haulgh area on Saturday night to come forward. We will be checking car registrations seen in the area at the time, and it would be far better for those people to come forward than for us to knock on their door, which we will.

"I appreciate that certain people will be worried that their families may find out they were in the area, but I can assure them that if they come to us, we will treat their information in confidence.

"What is important now is that we find Carly's killer and any embarrassment anyone might feel about being in the area is trivial compared to this."

Carly was last seen wearing beige three quarter length training pants with a drawstring around the calf, a white/beige sweatshirt with a six inch wide navy blue panel across the chest and white trainers.