THE pregnant wife of a Scots sailor who has gone missing in Dubai has told how she is "going crazy with worry" over his disappearance.
Royal Navy seaman Timothy Andrew Maccoll, who is originally from Killin, Stirlingshire, was last seen getting into a taxi after a night out at around 2am on Sunday.
The 27-year-old, known as Timmy, who now lives in Hampshire with his wife Rachael and their two children, aged six and four, had been serving on board HMS Westminster when it docked in Port Rashid in the Gulf country.
Mrs Maccoll, who is due to give birth to their third child in October, yesterday said that her husband's disappearance was completely out of character.
She said: "We are desperately worried. Checks have been made with hospitals, prisons, police stations, medical stations and mortuaries and there is no record of him and no sightings so far.
"I last spoke with Timmy at midday on Saturday and he was in really good spirits and looking forward to speaking with the children on Skype on Sunday. That call never happened.
"It is completely out of character for him not to contact us, and we are completely at a loss and going crazy with worry."
Mrs Maccoll also issued an appeal to the people of Dubai to come forward with any information they may have on what happened to her husband.
She said: "We are appealing to the people of Dubai and reaching out to the large expat community to help us find Timmy and raise awareness in that area."
Mrs Maccoll added: "Wherever Timmy is, I know he wants to be found, he will want us to find him, we need people to help us do that.
"He may be in trouble somewhere, he could be trapped as far as we know, we have absolutely no idea.
"Please, please help us find him."
HMS Westminster arrived in Dubai on May 26.
Mr Maccoll had gone on a night out on Saturday and was seen leaving the Rock Bottom Bar, which is in the Regent Hotel in the area of Deira, around a 15- minute drive from where the ship was docked.
A shipmate saw him getting into a taxi alone at around 2am on Sunday morning.
A spokesman for the Royal Navy said routine checks were carried out before HMS Westminster sailed on Thursday, but the sailor could not be located and local authorities were told about the situation.
Mr Maccoll's family were also informed he had not returned to the ship, which is conducting a major international operation in the Gulf.
His uncle, Colin Maccoll, said his nephew's disappearance was "a worry".
Speaking from Mr Maccoll's grandmother's home in Killin, he said: "His wife is down in Portsmouth, and Timmy's mother left yesterday morning to find out what's happening. It's obviously a worry for us.
"He is originally from here but since joining up about 10 years or so ago, he has spent most of his time down in England.
"He was in Dubai as part of his navy deployment, and we don't know exactly what's happened so far."
He added: "He loved the Navy and his family but I really don't want to say too much without the permission of his mother."
A spokesman for the Royal Navy said: "We have one sailor who is currently unaccounted for in Dubai. Everything is being done to ensure that he is located safely.
"His next of kin have been informed.
"We are working closely with the local authorities and Foreign and Commonwealth Office representatives in the United Arab Emirates to establish his whereabouts."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article