Fears grow for missing girl

Fears were growing today that a 13-year-old girl who vanished six days ago may have fallen into the hands of a man she met in an internet chatroom.

Megan Doran was reported missing by her parents on Friday, when she failed to return home after telling them she was going shopping in London.

Police have launched a massive search and revealed the girl, who "could look older" than her age, had spent much of the Easter holidays trawling through internet chatrooms.

The grammar school pupil from Tunbridge Wells was last seen on Friday morning, when a friend's mother dropped her off at a railway station after she had stayed overnight.

Detectives believe Megan may have gone to London or Brighton and are "extremely concerned" for her safety.

Her mother Lorraine and her father William, a London accountant, are said to be distraught over the "wholly out of character" disappearance.

Detective Chief Inspector Dean Barnes, of Kent Police's major crime unit, said: "We are increasingly concerned for Megan's welfare and desperately need to know she is safe and well.

"We cannot stress enough how worried we are about her and how seriously we are taking her disappearance.

"Megan needs to know that she is not in any trouble and her parents just want her to come home."

Police have examined Megan's computer and say her internet use forms "a large part of our investigation".

"We have seized her computer and are looking at her internet activity over the past two weeks," said a spokesman.

"Megan was interested in computers and visited internet chatrooms, talking to a variety of people. Kent Police are working to establish who these people are." The girl's head teacher at Tonbridge Grammar School, Wendy Karey, said: "People are often attracted to these sites and a lot of the time it is harmless but other times it is not and we are praying this is not the case with Megan. There is no evidence she had been logging on to chatrooms at school."

She added: "Megan is an extremely popular and out-going young girl with a wide circle of friends who are now extremely worried about her. We all miss her very much and are praying she is safe." Megan was last seen at Tunbridge Wells railway station at 9.45am on Friday. She was dropped off by her friend's mother, who believed she was on her way home.

But she told her own mother she was heading into London on a shopping trip with friends. She called home later that day, telling her family she was in the Dorothy Perkins store on Oxford Street, and has not been in contact since.

Megan, who moved to the UK with her family from South Africa three years ago, lives with her parents and older sister in a £400,000 apartment in the centre of Tunbridge Wells.

She is white, 5ft 3in tall and of medium build, with medium length brown hair and speaks with a South African accent.

When last seen she was wearing light blue jeans, a grey jersey top with yellow and red stitching down the front zip, and beneath that a multi-coloured top.