Simon Parkes: Fresh search in 37-year hunt for missing sailor

Police in Gibraltar have launched fresh searches linked to the disappearance of a Royal Navy sailor 37 years ago.

Simon Parkes was last seen in 1986 when his ship was docked in the territory on its way back to Portsmouth.

Hampshire Constabulary officers have returned to the Town Range car park, where they carried out previous investigations last August.

Police have been made aware of a "further potential area of interest" within the car park.

A team of detectives and specially trained officers from the police and military will be carrying out the work in Gibraltar, as part of "work to assess a new line of enquiry".

Unsuccessful excavation work was carried out at the same car park in August 2023.

Royal Navy Rating Parkes, from Kingswood near Bristol, was last seen in December 1986, when the ship he was serving on, HMS Illustrious, was docked in Gibraltar.

A police spokesman added: "The 18-year-old radio operator went on to shore but never made it back on board and when the ship returned to Portsmouth days later, no one knew what had happened to him despite a huge manhunt to find him.

"Since then investigations into his disappearance have so far failed to find answers for his long-suffering parents."

His disappearance has previously been part of investigations by Hampshire Constabulary into serial killer Allan Grimson, a former petty officer, who was jailed for life for the murder of two young men and who was on board HMS Illustrious at the same time as Mr Parkes.

Grimson was jailed in 2001 at Winchester Crown Court for the murders of naval rating Nicholas Wright, 18, from Leicestershire, and barman Sion Jenkins, from Newbury in Berkshire.

He has always denied being involved in the disappearance of Mr Parkes.

Police have also previously carried out digs at a cemetery in the British Overseas Territory.

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