A young teenager missing from foster care was seriously harmed and sexually assaulted in exchange for drugs.

But details of how the child fell into danger and whether they were failed by Kingston or Richmond child services will never be made public as the body in charge refuses to publish its investigation.

The local safeguarding children’s board (LSCB) launched a serious case review (SCR) investigating the 19 months leading up to the assault in December 2014.

A small paragraph referencing the review was made public in Kingston Hospital’s July board papers.

It said: “This has not been published due to risks particularly in relation to e-safety.

"Learning has however been shared with the NSPCC, the Department for Education and the National SCR Panel.”

The NSPCC said all final SCRs and the LSCB responses “must be published on the LSCB website for a minimum of 12 months and should be available on request.

"This is important for sharing lessons learnt and good practice in writing and publishing SCRs.”

A Kingston and Richmond LSCB spokesman said the SCR was not published “to avoid risking the anonymity of individuals”.

SCRs should be written in a way that does not identify any children or vulnerable adults involved and should be kept secret “only in exceptional circumstances”, according to the National SCR Panel.

The panel said in November last year it was “concerned” about the quality of some SCRs, and that in the last two years it has agreed not to publish six such reports.

Secretary John Leppard said: “In exceptional cases there may be a justification for non-publication.

“The panel expects to see expert, independent advice to an LSCB that publication represents a particular and serious threat to specific individuals before it will agree with a decision not to publish in full a completed report, or to publish it in a way which does not identify the LSCB concerned in order to protect the subject.”

He added that the panel had three SCR records on file for Kingston and Richmond. 

These were the investigations into Tania Clarence who killed her three disabled children in New Malden in April 2014 and Joon Kyu Kim, 15, who died after falling from the top floor of the Bentall Centre on July 17, 2014.

The third, which is no longer available online, is titled “Tom and Vic” and looks at two troubled teenagers who were left with potentially life threatening injuries after a triple stabbing in Chessington in 2012.

Neither the LSCB, Kingston or Richmond councils nor the national panel would reveal that reasoning.

Liberal Democrat member for children, Cllr Margaret Thompson, said she had never been told of the report.