Fears grow for missing teenager

AN ESSEX teenager who has gone missing with an internet boyfriend has researched “tactics” to avoid being traced, it has emerged.

James Hore

AN ESSEX teenager who has gone missing with an internet boyfriend has researched “tactics” to avoid being traced, it has emerged.

Detectives in Chelmsford are growing increasingly concerned for the welfare of a 14-year-old girl Victoria Ayling who was last seen on Sunday.

Officers believe she may be in the company of 19-year-old Richard Lewis from Llanbradach who has also been reported missing to Gwent Police.

Victoria was last seen at 4am, in bed, at the home she shares with her parents, and older brother and sister, at Henniker Gate, Chelmsford.

Police have revealed she met the Welsh teenager on the popular Bebo website and had kept in touch via the internet and he had visited her a number of times at her home, where he had met Victoria's parents.

Richard was last seen at his Llanbradach address last Friday at 7pm.

He is described as of slim, 5ft 10ins, with short dark straight hair.

When he was last seen he was wearing light blue jeans, old white trainers, a dark grey Nike hoodie or a white hoodie with blue writing on the sleeve.

He celebrated his 19th birthday on April 20th.

An Essex Police spokesman said enquiries had revealed Victoria had been researching campsites in Scotland, and also tactics to avoid being traced.

She is 5ft 4ins, heavy-build, with long blond hair and has braces on her upper and lower teeth.

Richard has a white Vauxhall Astra van, which is customised with a front and side skirt body kit, alloy wheels and a tinted rear window, with the registration Y 543 NAR, and the couple may be in this vehicle.

Anyone who knows where Victoria and/or Richard are is asked to contact Essex Police on 0300 333 4444, or any police station.

They are particularly asking owners and operators of campsites to check for the Astra van or anyone matching the descriptions of Victoria or Richard.