Missing Claudia 'had a boyfriend'

THE mother of missing university chef Claudia Lawrence said she knew nothing about a mystery boyfriend her daughter spent the night with two days before she disappeared.

Joan Lawrence marked the first anniversary of her daughter's disappearance yesterday by renewing appeals for information.

Mrs Lawrence said she had no idea her daughter was having a relationship until police revealed the new information, saying: "I just don't know about him, I'll need to look it up. I've got diaries at home going back ten years so I know what she was doing or if she talked to me that day."

Ms Lawrence, 35, was last seen near her home in Heworth, York, on March 18 last year. She failed to arrive for work at the University of York's Goodricke College the following morning and police believe she may have been harmed by someone she knew.

Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway described the new information about Ms Lawrence as "extremely hot intelligence" and said it was "critical" they spoke to the man she was said to have been with until the early hours.

He said: "Critically, information has come to us whereby we understand that Claudia has told someone that she was actually out on one of the evenings, on one of the nights which immediately preceded her disappearance – out into the very early hours with what she described as a boyfriend, and we are talking deep into the night, half past four or five o'clock in the morning."

He added that there was "nothing suspicious" about the new information, but the man would need to be identified so that he could be eliminated from the investigation.