Wife’s plea over sailor who has never seen baby girl

Leading Seaman (LS) Timothy MacColl, who was serving on HMS Westminster, went missing while the ship was visiting the United Arab Emirates.

The 28-year-old was last seen getting into a taxi taking him back to the ship at Port Rashid in the early hours of May 27.

At a press conference in Portsmouth yesterday, his wife, Rachael appealed for information about his whereabouts.

When LS MacColl went missing, his wife was 20 weeks pregnant with their third child, Eriskay, who has since been born and has not met her father.

The couple, who live in Gosport, Hampshire, also have a son, Cameron, and daughter, Skye.

Mrs MacColl, 25, said: “My husband is not just a sailor, he’s an adoring father, son and uncle. He is my soulmate, my first love and best friend.

“We have been together since we were teenagers. We have grown together, got married and started a family.

“Days before my husband went missing we had celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary and his present from me were scan pictures of our soon-to-be third child who I had just seen at our 20-week scan. He was so excited about our baby coming and I had sent him loads of bump photos.”

She added: “The one thing that pains me the most is that he’s not here for them.”

Describing the moment that she found out that her husband was missing, Mrs MacColl said: “Being a military wife you know that knock on the door is a possibility but you never think it will be you.

“When that knock came I collapsed for I was told that my husband wasn’t dead or injured but missing. My head couldn’t understand what they meant.

“For the last five months I have sat at home unable to give up hope, unable to move forward, unable to grieve and constantly dreading the fact that the knock on the door might or might not ever come again.”