'If you have them please let them come home'

THE parents of two missing schoolgirls made a desperate televised appeal to their girls’ abductor to release them last night, as British police made their first breakthrough in the case.

In an interview on ITV's Tonight with Trevor McDonald, Sharon Chapman, mother of Jessica, 10, pleaded: "Just give them back. Drop them off somewhere that is safe... It's never too late... I just want them back."

She said every morning was a recurring nightmare where "when I wake up nothing has changed, where it's the same as yesterday". The girls have now been missing for nine days.

Kevin Wells, father of Holly, 10, said: "We have only one positive thought pattern now, that the girls are being withheld against their will but are still with us. On that basis we plead, we absolutely plead that you don't harm these two girls."

"We want Holly and Jessica returned to our families and our community. They must be frightened to death. But if you have them please let them come home."

The parents' intervention came after police yesterday revealed a motorist was seen driving erratically as he apparently struggled with two children near where Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were last seen. The lead may have been overlooked by detectives for several days.

A taxi driver told detectives he followed the motorist, driving a metallic dark green four-door saloon car, for around six or seven minutes until it turned down a side road.

"As he closed upon the vehicle he saw what he believed to be a child in the front passenger seat and another in the back of the car," a police spokesman said.

The child in the rear seat had light brown hair like Jessica's.

The motorist was described as a white male, aged between 38 and 45-years-old. He was of Mediterranean appearance or had tanned skin. He had black unkempt wiry hair, no longer than collar-length and was wearing dark clothing. Police said they had received other reports of a green car in the Soham area.

They are now scouring CCTV footage along the route used by the suspect and checking speed cameras to see if his car was captured on film. Detective Chief Inspector Andy Hebb admitted the taxi driver may have first contacted police several days ago.

He also revealed that at least two passengers in the taxi who could provide vital confirmation of details of the incident, were being interviewed.