Heartbrokne mother Marcela Alvarez was today pleading for help to find her six-year-old daughter, who was abducted last July.

Little Esmeralda was taken by her 61-year-old father, Elgardo Alvarez, a lecturer from Crawley, during an access visit. There has been no trace of the youngster since her mother took her to meet him at Victoria station, London, on July 12.

Police believe father and daughter could be hiding in Mexico or Europe and were holding a Press conference at Crawley police station this morning. Det Sgt Dave Wilkins said there had been no confirmed sightings of the girl or her father since last summer.

He said: "We believe he may have gone to Mexico or Europe. We are looking at several lines of inquiry. Mrs Alvarez is anxious to talk to the media in the hope that someone somewhere might have a memory of seeing them or might know where they are."

Police say the pair could still be hiding in the UK because Elgardo, of Apsley Court, Bewbush, Crawley, did not have a passport with him.

Esmeralda, sometimes called Jasmine by her father, was born in Crawley and lived with her family in Northgate and then Gossops Green. Her parents are Mexican and she speaks English and Spanish. She was a pupil at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Primary School, Northgate, until 1998, when, following the breakdown of her parents' marriage, she moved with her mother to a women's refuge in London.

Marcela had won custody of her daughter and was planning to take her back to Mexico to start a new life. It is thought Elgardo, who taught Spanish at Crawley College as well as working as a police and court translator, could not bear the thought of his daughter leaving the country.

At the time Marcela said: "Esmeralda is such a happy, lovely child and I just want to hold her in my arms again. I am praying to God to let us be together again and forever."

This was the second time Elgardo had taken the child. In 1998 he took Esmeralda to the USA while her mother was visiting Mexico with her own mother.

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