Lee tries to block out memories of his childhood. He was one of five children born to a drug dealing father and heroin addict mother in the Northwest of England.
His father was sent to prison when he was young and his mother turned their home into a "dosshouse for junkies" as he puts it.
Lee and his brothers and sisters were often beaten: he remembers being locked in a cellar for "days on end". His elder sister tried to look after the others, get them dressed, fed and off to school, but was only a child herself.
When he was 13, social services finally intervened. Lee wanted to live with his grandmother, but instead he was placed in foster care.
It was then that he started to run away, sleeping in sheds and cars.
When he ran out of clothes he stole luggage from trains. "I was walking around in clothes that were twice the size for me," he laughs.
He shoplifted for food, then quickly moved onto robbery and burglary to get cash.
'Ironic'
Sometimes people would find him asleep in the morning. He used to run as quickly as he could - away from the shouts of "little bastard!".
One homeowner who found him in her shed used to invite him in for a "bacon butty" - though she always called the police.
Time after time Lee was taken back to the foster home, only to run away again. On occasion he stayed on the run for months on end.
He would go up to Blackpool "for the attractions", and spend his time playing in the arcades. It was a very lonely existence, he never spoke to anyone because he was worried about being caught.
Homeless people are a common sight on the streets of British cities
He saw gangs of youths hanging around, but he was never attacked, or propositioned.
"I could handle myself. I wasn't scared of that. I had a knife," he says.
After two years, he was arrested for robbery, convicted, and sent to a Secure Unit. Released, he was allowed to go and live with his grandmother, where his siblings were.
It wasn't long before he was back in prison though: he found two teenagers breaking into his grandmother's shed, and attacked them. "Ironic, really" he comments drily.
Now 21, Lee is unemployed and pessimistic about his future. His primary education was disrupted, he only spent two weeks at secondary school. He can barely read and write.
Lee was one of eight young people who I met in one middle sized town in northwest England. All had spent time on the street before they were 16, almost all had slept rough for weeks or months at a time.
When people here think of street children, they think of South America or India
Emilie Smeaton
One girl had first run away from home when she was eleven. Put into care, she said she'd been sexually abused and at 13 she'd travelled to London.
There, she lived on the streets with a big group of older homeless people, who she said looked after her.
Most of the people I spoke to had taken drugs - some had become addicted. Three of the young women had fallen pregnant while while on the run: only one had kept her baby. Aged 17, she was pregnant again, though she now has a council house.
No-one knows how many under-16s, children in legal terms, are living on the streets.
Closure
Emilie Smeaton, a specialist researcher, has been investigating runaways for more than 13 years. She believes there are "thousands" across the country.
"When people here think of street children, they think of South America or India," she says. "They don't acknowledge that we have them here"
Emilie Smeaton recently spent two years interviewing street children in Britain in depth, for the charity Railway Children. She spoke to over 103 people, though she met many more.
The youngest interviewee was 12 years old. She talked to one young man who'd lived rough between the ages of 11 and 18.
Most were keen to stay "off the radar", reluctant to access local authority services - though some said if there was a hostel for the under-16s they would use it.
They appreciated the freedom of a hostel, the ability to walk in and get a bed, few questions asked, and the young people who'd been in adult hostels found them threatening.
There is very little provision specifically for these young people. There are only three refuges for under-16s in the whole of the UK, where they can walk in off the street without a local authority referral.
Staff will contact the child's parents, to let them know they're safe, but they won't say where they are.
The biggest and most important refuge is in London. It has provided four beds for under-16s, funded by the NSPCC and London local authorities. But from the end of this month the funding will run out.
Specialist support staff have been put on notice, and the refuge is set to close for good. From Monday 15 March it will have to turn people away.
The Department for Children Schools and Families says it is currently consulting on the best provision for runaways, and is making £100,000 available. But that's a fraction of the refuge's annual running costs.
The names in this report have been changed to protect the identities of the participants.
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