Police and family today said they fear a missing Hove aristocrat has been murdered.

With no sightings of the tenth Earl of Shaftesbury for three weeks and no ransom demand from kidnappers, they are left with only one tragic conclusion.

Detective Chief Superintendent Graham Cox, head of Sussex Police CID, said: "There now exists a strong possibility that Lord Shaftesbury has been murdered."

Officers from the Sussex Police major crime branch are considering flying next week to the south of France where the earl was last seen.

One of those planning to liaise with French police, Detective Chief Inspector Adam Hibbert, said: "We have been speaking to French detectives and to the earl's family and they too fear the worse because his disappearance is so out of character."

French police are pursuing witnesses and suspects for a motive.

One French detective told The Argus: "Lord Shaftesbury would frequent topless and lap-dancing clubs and befriend prostitutes.

"We have discovered he would also go to bars where homosexual men would meet.

"He is known to be extremely generous with people he meets and lavishes gifts on them.

"Has he met someone who has taken advantage of him? Tried to rob him? Those are the questions we want answered.

"His family said he has the constitution of an ox and he was in good health, so we do not believe he has suffered an illness. And we do not believe he has been kidnapped because someone would have received a ransom note by now."

Lord Shaftesbury, 66, failed to return to his luxury flat in Adelaide Crescent, Hove, from a trip to the South of France three weeks ago.

He had been renting the Hove flat for three months and was so taken with Brighton and Hove he intended buying it.

The last sighting of him was as he left his hotel in Cannes.

Neighbours in Hove said they thought the thrice-married earl may have flown off with a girlfriend to a secret destination but as time has gone by, their concerns have also grown.

Lord Shaftesbury, estranged from his wife, is thought to have been supporting three nightclub hostesses in the south of France.

One report yesterday said a painting and pieces of furniture the earl had reported stolen in the months leading to his disappearance had been recovered by French police.

The earl was recently assaulted in France after accusing four people of stealing antiques and a portrait from his home. Thierry Bensaude, a lawyer based in Nice who represents the peer, said his client had recently been "worried about strange things happening to him".

He said: "The earl is extremely generous to his friends and he may have been taken advantage of."

The earl's girlfriend, a 33-year-old hostess, told French newspaper Nice Matin about her fears for her lover. She said: "I have the feeling something has happened to him."

Sussex Police are in touch with Lord Shaftesbury's immediate family and offering them support.

They appealed to anyone with information to come forward.