‘Timmy’s shipmates should be quizzed’

RELATIVES of missing sailor Timmy MacColl hope Dubai Police will be invited to the UK to interview shipmates who were among the last people to see him.

Two sailors - a man and a woman - claim they put Timmy in a cab outside the Rock Bottom Cafe in the early hours of Sunday, May 27.

But Timmy never made it back to his ship, HMS Westminster, which was docked at Port Rashid.

Three days later the ship returned to pirate-busting duties in the Indian Ocean.

With the warship at sea, detectives had no opportunity to interview the two sailors or other shipmates who it later emerged had made a taxi journey from the Seafarers’ Mission to Rock Bottom with Timmy (pictured inset).

With HMS Westminster having returned to Portsmouth in the UK on Monday, it is now thought that CID officers will be able to speak directly to the sailors involved.

Last night Timmy’s uncle, Neil Cunningham, who is a police officer in the UK, said:

“I would hope that the Royal Navy and the Ministry of Def­ence would give police officers in Dubai the opportunity to come to the UK to interview the two key witnesses and the others who were in the taxi from the Seafarers’ Mission.

“The police looked for the three others who were in the taxi from the Mission going to Rock Bottom for nine weeks before they came forward.”

He continued: “It’s only correct that the officers investigating are afforded the opportunity to take first-hand witness statements.

“These sailors are the last people who actually knew Timmy, to see him.”

Cunningham said the whole of Timmy’s family were glad to hear from Dubai Police that the hunt is continuing after a land and sea search found no clues to his disappearance.

A reward is available to anybody with information that leads police to Timmy.

For more details, go to www.BringTimmyHome.co.uk.