Runaway, 13, thought to be in Britain

The mother of a 13-year-old girl believed to have run away with a 47-year-old man she met in Spain has spoken for the first time about the affair. As Kathy Marks reports, she made an emotional appeal for her daughter to contact her.

Sally Claydon, 13, is thought to have gone missing with Bruce Alborough-Tregear, a British man whom she got to know while helping out in a bar run by her mother in the Spanish beach resort of Fuengirola.

Her friends have told police that she spoke to him twice on the telephone after returning from Spain two weeks ago. The second occasion was last Friday, the day before she disappeared.

Yesterday her mother, Sharon Walsh, 32, appealed at a police press conference in Harlow, Essex, for Sally, her only child, to get in touch. "No matter what she has done, I will always love her," she said. "I want to know anything, even just to know she is alive. If she wants to go elsewhere or anything, as long as I know she's just out there. I just really, really want her to phone me or get someone else to phone me. She can come home and we can sort it all out."

Although Sally left with her summer clothes and passport, police believe she is still in Britain. She disappeared from her home in Harlow while her mother, who is divorced from Sally's father, was out with her boyfriend, Mark McIntyre. Police have a note apparently written by the girl and handed to them by Ms Walsh. In it, she says she hates her mother and Mr McIntyre, but makes no mention of Mr Alborough-Tregear.

Police said they were also following a second line of enquiry based on suggestions that Sally could be with a different man who is nearer her own age.

Mr McIntyre, 43, told the press conference that he and Ms Walsh had not been aware of anything untoward between Sally and the older man.

Mr Alborough-Tregear, who is believed to use other names, had told the family he was divorced with grown-up children and had connections in the Wiltshire area. They met him again by chance on the ferry home.

Detective Inspector Graham Hancock said police wanted him to contact them, if only to say that he was not with Sally. "We are anxious to eliminate Bruce from our enquiries," he said. Interpol has been informed of the girl's disappearance and ports have been alerted.