HUNT STEPPED UP FOR IRISH TEENAGER MISSING ON THE COSTA DEL SOL

Amy was last seen leaving a friend's house in the resort of Calahonda near Fuengirola where she had been babysitting at around 10pm on New Year's Day. She disappeared after starting out on the 15-minute walk to the nearby home she shares with her mother Audrey, 39, brother Dean, 17, and their stepfather Dave Mahon, 36, an estate agent.

On Sunday Audrey fought back tears as she admitted: “I'm just terrified someone has got Amy and is holding her against her will. If that's the case, then please let her go. We just want Amy back.” “We are devastated, and with every day that goes by we are more and more worried that something has happened to her.” In a direct appeal to Amy, she added: “If you've decided to run away, then please come back. Your brother Dean misses you, we love you very much. Please, please come home. You're not in any trouble.” Police spent yesterday morning searching wasteland by an unlit dirt track. Amy regularly used the short cut, which runs alongside an abandoned house, to walk home from the friend's house where she was last seen. The longer route home through a well-lit housing estate would have taken her an extra 20 minutes.

Dozens of family friends have joined in the hunt for Amy by pinning up posters in local businesses. Audrey's sisters Bernadine and Barbara, and niece Nicola have flown in from their homes in Dublin's Northside to help in the search.

Audrey said: “She's on my passport so she's got no travel documents with her, she only had the clothes she was wearing and she had no money. She had arranged to meet up with her friend at 6pm the day after she disappeared and she was going to stay over at her house again on Friday night.” “Teenagers are teenagers and Amy had her good and bad days. We had our rows and she had spent nights away from home at friends' places after we argued. But she always phoned to say where she was. And even if she didn't want to call home for some reason, I would have expected her to contact friends to say she was safe.” Amy's natural father, who stayed in Dublin after Audrey and her two children moved to the Costa del Sol, has been informed of his daughter's disappearance. Her stepfather has lived in Spain for five years and has known Audrey since the pair met in Ireland seven years ago. Amy turns 16 next month.

Last night Audrey told how Amy was keen to start working as a hairdresser, adding: ‘She's shy with people she didn't know but you couldn't stop her talking once she got to know you.” Amy, who has dark, shoulder-length hair, was wearing a black jacket, dark tracksuit bottoms, a black Diesel T-shirt and black furry boots, when she was last seen. She was carrying a Bershka bag.