Katrice Lee: Father visits site of search for missing toddler

The father of a toddler who disappeared in Germany almost 37 years ago has revisited the area near where she was last seen.

Two-year-old Katrice Lee, from Hartlepool, went missing from a Naafi supermarket near Paderborn, in 1981.

Richard Lee described his visit to an excavation site on the banks of the River Alme as "a return to his nightmare".

About 100 police and military personnel are involved in the new search.

Mr Lee, from Hartlepool, and Katrice's mother Sharon Lee, from Gosport, Hampshire, have always claimed the youngster was abducted.

Heavy equipment arrived on Monday to begin the excavation of a 328ft (100m) stretch of the riverbank in Paderborn.

Mr Lee travelled from Hartlepool with the town's MP Mike Hill, who lobbied the Ministry of Defence to sanction the fresh search.

He said: "We've just got to do this. I don't want them to find anything, but honestly, I am struggling.

"It's a killer, absolutely a killer. It's a return to my nightmare.

"If Katrice is living a lie, which I believe she is and she is living and being brought up with another family and speaking a different language, she may actually pick up this information and say 'yes that's me'.

"I've always felt Katrice is out there, that's she's living a lie, but unfortunately this rocks our faith a little bit and for five weeks we are going to live in the dark until we get the results."

Last night when we walked down to the scene of the search for the first time, I saw that nightmare being re-lived. It was in his voice and it was in his tears.

He's a military man and he knows how to fight. For the last seven years I've been following that fight, interviewing him on dozens of occasions.

Always measured, always in control of his message and the injustice he feels Katrice and his family have been served.

Last night, as we stood at the banks of the Alme, I saw, just for a few minutes, that fight make way for the raw agony of what's unfolded over the last 36 years.

Met with the emotionally brutal sight of the work going on to find his little girl's body, it became almost too much for him.

He still says he doesn't believe the search will find Katrice but he's facing this scene for her.

Mr Lee, a former sergeant major who was stationed at the German base, has welcomed the search, but said it should have been undertaken years ago.

Katrice went missing on 28 November - her second birthday - while out shopping with her mother.

In 2012, Royal Military Police chiefs admitted mistakes were made during the initial investigation.

Border guards were not informed when Katrice disappeared, statements from shop workers were not taken until six weeks later and information about an eye condition Katrice had was not made known.

The River Alme site was identified after the release of an age-progressed photo-fit of a man seen near the Naafi shop holding a child similar to Katrice.

He was seen parked in a green car on a bridge over the river the day after she went missing.

Mr Lee told media he had faith in the current investigation but he remained angry at the previous failings.

"I feel we are singing off the same song sheet for the first time for a long time," he said.

"Do I forgive them? The answer is, categorically, no, I do not and I never will."