Briton held in Dubai over missing girlfriend

A British businessman is being held by Dubai police over the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.

Mark Arnold, 42, from Stoke-on-Trent, is being questioned by officers about the whereabouts of Kerry Winter.

He told officer she was alive and well when he left her two weeks ago.

But friends and colleagues said Ms Winter told them Mr Arnold was stalking her in the weeks before she vanished.

Ms Winter, 35, is believed to have feared her former lover had paid someone to spy on her and took roundabout ways home to avoid being followed.

Her family, from Durban, South Africa, launched desert searches for her over the past week.

Ms Winter was last heard from on the evening of August 20 when she phoned her friend, Jo Brown, to say Arnold had followed her to a hotel, he family said.

Friends and family received a number of texts from Ms Winter's phone over the next few days, but they believe they were sent by someone else.

Writing on a Facebook page, her niece, Natasha Winter, wrote: "We are holding hope that we will find her alive, if there is anyone who lives in Dubai or high profile, local contacts please help...

"It is a sick individual who committed this crime and it is he alone that any negativity should fall on."

Witnesses told police they saw Ms Winter being beaten with a baseball bat in the stairwell of her apartment villa in the Al Barsha suburb.

She was then bundled into a car and driven off, it was claimed.

Arnold, who also previously lived in London, was understood to be working as an operations manager at Hamilton International, an interior design firm.

He flew to Britain two days after the disappearance and returned to the Gulf state three days later, when he was arrested.

Hisham Wyne, marketing manager for International Conferences and Exhibitions where Ms Winter worked, said: "When she joined the company it was something that cropped up, we knew that the boyfriend was stalking her.

"She also thought that he had paid someone to watch our office complex to find out her residence.

"He once barged into our offices, demanding to talk to her. Kerry was concerned. The man was very, very persistent."

Mr Wyne said his colleague was not always reliable, but was "dripping with confidence, no-nonsense, vivacious and empowered".

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that a British national was arrested in Dubai on August 25 and we are providing consular assistance."

Dubai police released few details about the case. Mr Arnold has not been charged.

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