A 14-year-old girl in the care of the island’s child protection agency who went missing for the fourth time in less than two months has been traced, police said tonight.

Police appealed again yesterday for the public’s help to find the girl less than 24 hours after she was found by police and returned to the Brangman Home for girls in Smith’s.

A police spokesman said: “The teen left her designated government care facility on Tuesday night after being located in the Fentons Drive, Pembroke area earlier that afternoon and returned to the facility.”

Police said she was known to frequent parts of Pembroke including Fentons Drive, Parsons Road, St Augustine Hill, Middletown, One Way Deepdale and The Glebe Road.

She was found in Middle Road in Devonshire yesterday and returned to the care home.

The Royal Gazette reported yesterday that the Department of Child and Family Services had failed to respond to questions on why the youngster, a secondary school pupil, had gone missing several times since last November.

The latest police appeal was at least the fourth since November 18.