GLOUCESTERSHIRE Police say they will not start searching for the body of missing Mary Bastholm.

Miss Bastholm disappeared in 1968 and it has been suspected for years that serial killer Fred West had abducted and murdered her.

An online petition was launched earlier this month by Chris Roberts calling on police to excavate The Oasis Cafe - formerly the Pop-In Cafe - in Southgate Street to look for her remains.

Today Chief Constable Tony Melville responded to the petition saying his officers would not be digging up the cafe.

Mr Melville has written an open to Mr Roberts explaining his decision.

The letter in full follows:

Dear Mr Roberts,

We have now had the opportunity to review the information contained in your letter in conjunction with the material we hold from the 1994 investigation into the activities of Fred and Rosemary West and the 1968 enquiry into the disappearance of Mary Bastholm.

In your letter you refer to ‘six known and irrefutable facts’ concerning the relationship between Mary and Fred West and you call for us to explain why the Pop-In Cafe was not forensically analysed following the discovery of Mary’s exercise book in the toilet area in 1994, asking us to revisit that decision now.

It is unusual for us to give the level of detail that will follow but I do so because of scale of public interest in the case and at the request of Mary’s family, who relive the trauma of her loss each time her disappearance is revisited publicly; the facts often being intertwined with varying levels of inaccuracy and urban myth.

I hope that the following response to each of the ‘facts’ you presented will help you, and all those who signed the petition, to understand the reasons why we will not be conducting searches at the Pop-In Cafe in relation to Mary’s disappearance.

• Fred was a regular customer of the cafe and knew Mary

The 1994 investigation found supporting evidence of this although this was always denied by Fred West.

• Mary was seen in West’s car on more than one occasion

There is evidence from the 1994 inquiry which tends to suggest this but it is in no way categoric.

• West admitted to his son Stephen and to Janet Leach that he had killed Mary

Fred West was, and remains, the only suspect for the suspected abduction and murder of Mary Bastholm. In interview he denied it. No information about Mary’s whereabouts has ever come to light.

• West did the basement toilet conversion at the cafe around the time of Mary’s disappearance. A major part of this conversion was the laying of a concrete floor

This is not true. The owner of the cafe was in possession of the property long before Mary disappeared and no work took place on the building until the late 70s. None of that work was conducted by West.

• West’s known modus operandi was to bury his victims

This is correct.

• At the time of West’s arrest in 1994, the then tenant of the cafe reported to the police that he had found a school exercise book belonging to Mary secreted behind the brickwork in the toilet area. This book was collected by police but the Bastholm family were not informed of its discovery.

The tenant contacted police in 1994 about a book he had discovered amongst junk and rubble in the basement – not in the brickwork. It was an old cafe diary which was not connected to Mary. It had no relevance to Mary or her family.

On the basis of the above facts, it is our view that any search of the Pop-In Cafe would be entirely disproportionate and without foundation. There is simply no evidence to support the idea that Mary is buried in that location. We have visited Mary’s family to explain this and they are wholly supportive of this course of action.

Having answered your request for straight unequivocal answers, I would now politely make the request for the i-petition calling for the cafe to be searched in relation to Mary’s disappearance to be removed. Having furnished you with the full facts, you will now be aware that some of your information was flawed and is misleading to the hundreds of people who have subsequently signed the document.

I agree entirely with the sentiment you express at the end of your letter – that is your desire to find and return Mary to her family. I don’t believe there is one of us in Gloucestershire Constabulary who wouldn’t want the same conclusion.

If there is tangible new information which comes to light and may lead us to Mary’s final resting place we will, of course, consider it in conjunction with the material we already hold. We will, however, not revisit this decision without new and compelling information.

Yours sincerely

Tony Melville

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Police have now urged Mr Roberts, who lives in Ross-on-Wye, to delete the petition from the internet.

It currently has 329 signatures, with many of those signing it saying officers should not stop their hunt until a body is found.

Mr Roberts said: "I won't be taking the petition down – whether he did work on the cafe or not is a moot point, the police think Mary Bastholm is old news and that's why they are saying this.

"They can't make me take it down."

Alice Taylor, who runs the cafe now, said: "It just goes to show that false things can be spread so easily before being challenged.

Manhunt

"It's the family of Mary I feel sorry for, things like this circulate on the internet and there is no truth to it.

"We've had people come in here recently who talk about the rumours and stories, but it's not true.

"When we took over this cafe 11 years ago from the previous owners, they knew Mary and it was terrible for them.

"But everyone needs to show some respect for the family and not say things that are untrue.

"The whole thing is really very sad for everyone in Gloucester."

The cafe has been there for 55 years in total and is still popular in the city.