By Hayley Mortimer, BBC File on 4
An ex-police officer who claims to save children from human traffickers has faked stories to raise money for his charity, the BBC has discovered.
Adam Whittington, founder of Project Rescue Children (PRC), says he has helped more than 700 children in countries including Uganda, Kenya, and The Gambia. However, BBC File on 4 has found that some of these children were never trafficked, and funds raised—sometimes with the help of celebrity supporters—have not always reached the intended children in need.
PRC described these allegations as “completely without merit, misleading and defamatory.”
Mr. Whittington, a British-Australian citizen, has misled donors in various ways, including raising funds for a baby supposedly rescued from traffickers, who was actually with her mother all along. The mother, living in poverty, claims she and her daughter never received any money from PRC.
Mr. Whittington started in child rescue two decades ago after leaving the Metropolitan Police. He initially focused on retrieving children taken abroad by a parent in custody disputes but later shifted to helping trafficked or abused children. Both his and PRC’s social media pages have accumulated 1.5 million followers, drawing celebrity support with shocking and sometimes disturbing content.
Sam Faiers from ITV’s “The Only Way is Essex” became a PRC ambassador and visited Uganda to meet orphaned and destitute children. She helped raise £137,000 ($175,000) for a rescue centre. However, allegations of financial mismanagement surfaced, and only £58,000 ($74,000) reached PRC’s Ugandan partner organization, Make a Child Smile. Its founder, Alexander Ssembatya, believes the rest of the money was misappropriated.
Sam Faiers expressed being “deeply appalled” and “heartbroken” over the misuse of funds. PRC claimed the money provided was sufficient for the rescue centre’s construction but withdrew from the project, accusing Mr. Ssembatya of mismanaging funds. PRC also claimed the remaining money was spent on other children in Uganda and the Philippines.
PRC has claimed to have operations in other African countries, including Kenya. However, a BBC investigation in April 2024 found no evidence of a functioning rescue centre in Kenya. The property, supposedly run by “Mama Jane,” was actually an elderly woman’s home with no rescued children.
The BBC also uncovered a false rescue story in The Gambia. Mr. Whittington claimed to have rescued a newborn baby, Mireya, from traffickers, but the baby was found to be living with her mother in poverty. The mother had never received any money but had been given groceries on a few occasions. Ebou Bass, PRC’s former director in The Gambia, admitted the story was fabricated in hopes of receiving financial help for the child.
The BBC has found no evidence that the marketplace rescue ever happened. PRC insisted Mireya’s story is true and invited the BBC to carry out a DNA test on the child.
Mr. Whittington has set up companies and charities in multiple countries, many of which have never filed detailed accounts. In 2022, the UK’s Charity Commission rejected an application to register PRC due to significant issues with its application. PRC’s charitable status in Australia was revoked after the Australian Charity Commission learned of the BBC’s investigation.
Adam Whittington is currently living in Russia and did not respond to requests for an interview. Some content has been removed from PRC’s website, and Mr. Whittington has been banned from Instagram. He is now raising money for a rescue centre in the Philippines and plans to expand PRC into South Africa.
Listen to “The Child Rescue Con” on BBC Sounds, or watch on BBC iPlayer and the BBC News channel for more details.
Additional reporting: Kate West, Katy Ling, and Melanie Stewart-Smith