THE father of missing man Rory Johnson-Hatfield has made an emotional appeal for the public's help in finding his son.

Doug Hatfield was giving a press conference, three weeks after Rory, 29, of Skipton, disappeared while on a night out in York city centre.

Fighting back tears, he said he wanted to thank everyone for the support and kind offers of help the family had received throughout an extemely difficult time.

"Rory was a wonderful and much loved son and brother, and his natural ability to talk to anybody, young or old, with such ease, and make them laugh, makes me so very proud, because there are so very few like him," he said.

"Nothing prepares you for a time like this and it's extremely emotional."

 

He said Rory's sisters Gabby, 15, and Ariana, 14, had summed him up as laid-back, generous, kind, funny, polite, friendly, easy-going, popular, crazy, happy, caring, handsome, talkative, noisy and bubbly.

"I speak for all the family when I say there's a huge hole in our hearts that only the return of Rory can repair," he said.

"So please let us all try and bring him home safe and well."

He said it was difficult not knowing what had happened three weeks after his disappearance, with no word or sighting of him beyond CCTV footage of him in Skeldergate. "That isn't to say we have given up hope. We hope that he comes home."

He said he had no idea what had happened to his son and he would like to think someone did know, although he didn't want to think of the possibility of foul play.

"If anybody can shed some light on his disappearance they should get in touch."

Superintendent Adam Thomson, of North Yorkshire Police, said officers were still conducting a number of inquiries to try to locate Rory.

"The river has featured highly in the investigation and currently the river is still in spate," he said.

"Once it has receded we will be allocating a police search advisor to work with the Environment Agency to find out how the floods would have affected the search area, to determine where we should renew any searches.

“We are grateful for the support this investigation has received and we would again renew our appeal that if anyone has any information about Rory’s disappearance that they contact North Yorkshire Police on 101.”