Never a Child begins with a young runaway girl arriving at an LA bus station with a bunch of creepy types leering at her. A older well-dressed man named "Uncle Harry" (Alan Manson) approaches and befriends her with a phony sob story, but before he can pick her up a former acquaintance, Sophie (Jane Ralston) sees him and makes a phone call to a friend advising that he was spotted. Harry confronts her and Sophie makes a run for it, but he catches up to her on the roof of a building and pushes her off killing her. Harry then takes the young girl home with plans for her to appear in a pornographic film. The next day, Quincy (Jack Klugman) conducts the autopsy and determines that Sophie was murdered and meets with Carol Trager (Cassie Yates), a friend of Sophie's who runs a shelter and helped rehabilitate her from being a prostitute under Harry. Carol is certain that Harry killed Sophie based on the phone call she received from her and works with Quincy and the police to track him down and save another young girl from the same fate.
Considering the time period when this episode was produced and first aired, it was pretty daring material as the subject of child pornography was something that many other shows wouldn't even mention. The Quincy writers, production team and cast all deserve kudos on this one for addressing such a tabu topic.
That said, there are some weaknesses here in that we see who the killer is in the opening scenes so there is very little mystery featured. I also found it pretty unbelievable that rather than stopping someone on a busy street or calling out for help as she's chased, Sophie runs to the rooftop of a building and steps right to the edge making it very easy for Harry to eliminate her. Not exactly what you would expect from a street smart girl.
Overall, a very dramatic episode which is rather disturbing in parts due to the subject material but deals with a heartbreaking issue that demands awareness and prevention.