Fears for safety of missing artist and son

POLICE and foresters searching for a missing artist, Imelda Riney, and her three-year-old son Liam, yesterGalway and Co Clare after the discovery of her burnt-out car near by, writes Alan Murdoch.

Relatives believe Ms Riney and her youngest child were abducted after witnesses reported seeing her giving a lift to a man wanted by police, who said yesterday they were now 'extremely concerned' for Whitegate, near the river Shannon, in Co Clare.

Originally from Dublin, Ms Riney, 29, who had a successful career in Manchester for five years before returning to Ireland, disaptigating reports that a 17-year-old youth from the Loughrea area, recently released from prison in England, was seen in the back of Ms Riney's car around lunchtime last had been seen sleeping rough in Her estranged husband, Val Ballance, a 38-year-old computer analyst, said when he called to his former wife's cottage he found a kettle on the stove boiled dry and the family's pet dog, normally indoors, running free outside.