Last updated at 16:11, Thursday, 28 January 2010

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Stewart Griffiths

POLICE divers have been searching Ulverston canal for a missing man.

The North West Police Underwater Search and Marine Unit yesterday trawled the canal for Stewart Griffiths.

But the Preston-based team could not find any trace of Mr Griffiths during its two-hour search.

Mr Griffiths disappeared on Wednesday January 13 after a late-night drinking session at The Cattle Market pub in Ulverston.

The 48-year-old, of Steel Street, was last seen leaving the pub on Neville Street, Ulverston, on his white mountain bike at around midnight.

Sergeant Rupert Johnston, from Ulverston police, said: “Concern for his safety is growing day by day. There is no suggestion that Mr Griffiths has gone into the canal, but it’s just one line of enquiry that we’ve got to follow.

“It’s a stretch of water, and when people have been missing for so long, we tend to search water near to where people have gone missing from. This stretch of canal is on Mr Griffiths’ way home, so that’s why we are searching this section of water.”

Mr Griffiths has had various jobs, most recently working in the kitchens of a Cartmel hotel.
Sgt Johnston said: “Mr Griffiths’ wife, Christine, is desperately concerned. Anyone with information about Mr Griffiths’ whereabouts is asked to get in touch with the police.”

Mr Griffiths has lived on Steel Street for a number of years and neighbours were shocked by the news of his disappearance.

Suzie Lawson, 27, of Steel Street, Ulverston, said: “He always seems really quiet. He always says ‘hi’ when he passes and makes a point of saying hello. Going missing isn’t something you would expect him to do.

“He has always seemed like just a normal quiet guy.”

Julie Woodburn, 46, of Steel Street and co-owner of C&J Stores in Steel Street, said: “It’s not something I would have expected Stewart to do, I was quite shocked to hear about him going missing.

“ I hope there is a happy outcome and he is found soon.”

Another neighbour, who didn’t wish to be named, said Mr Griffiths and his wife “keep themselves to themselves”.

Mr Griffiths’ home was among many of the houses badly hit by the flooding in Ulverston, last year.

The majority of the houses on the road are still empty.

Neighbours said that Mr Griffiths’ disappearance seemed like an unwelcome addition to an already long list of misfortune for the street.

Sharon Phillipson-Reed, of Steel Street, said: “It’s just been one thing after another recently, with the floods, and then the burglaries and now someone going missing. For a community it has been bad enough recently, and now somebody’s lost, it just gets worse. It’s very sad.”

Mr Griffiths is described as white, slim and six feet tall.

He wears glasses and has receding, light brown hair.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Cumbria police on 0845 3300247.

First published at 13:07, Thursday, 28 January 2010
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk