‘My son could not stand Gaia... but he did not kill her’
THE father of a 49-year- old arrested over Gaia Pope’s disappearance said last night his son ‘could not stand’ the missing teenager but was ‘110 per cent innocent’.
Carpenter Paul Elsey was held on suspicion of murder as detectives revealed clothes similar to those the 19-year- old was wearing had been found near a 70ft clifftop.
His father, Greg Elsey, claims his son, the uncle of Gaia’s schoolfriend, was being wrongly targeted by police and said he was away working at the time she disappeared.
Shortly before his son’s arrest, he told the Mail: ‘Paul could not stand Gaia. He wanted nothing to do with her. He said her family were bad news.’
But following the arrest, Mr Elsey said his son barely knew Gaia and would not hurt her.
Last night he said: ‘He’s protested his innocence 110 per cent and I have 110 per cent belief that he will be released when they find out he has done nothing.’
Police yesterday cordoned off a section of the South West coast path around 200 yards inland from the cliff edge, between the beauty spots of Anvil Point and Dancing Ledge. It is around an hour’s walk from where Gaia, who suffers from epilepsy, was last seen in Swanage, Dorset, and two miles south of her family home in the village of Langton Matravers. The owner of the clothes has not yet been identified, but the discovery by a walker was significant enough that Gaia’s family were informed.
Gaia was wearing grey and white woven leggings, white trainers and a red checked shirt with white buttons when she vanished. Less than two hours after announcing the discovery of the clothes yesterday, Dorset Police confirmed they had made a third arrest over Gaia’s disappearance.
The man was identified by his family as Paul Elsey, a carpenter who specialises in church restorations. He is the uncle of Nathan Elsey, 19, who was arrested on Tuesday along with his grandmother Rosemary Dinch. They were later released.
Paul Elsey shares a first-floor flat with his mother, Mrs Dinch, 71, in Swanage, where Gaia was last seen. CCTV footage of Gaia on November 7 shows her running down the road towards Paul Elsey’s flat at 3.40pm.
She is said to have banged on his door in a distressed state and Mrs Dinch claimed she then stripped to her bra. The pensioner then says she convinced Gaia to put her clothes back on, except for a black jacket which was later recovered from the address.
Detectives had been trying to
‘He felt he would be victimised’
track Paul Elsey down since he went missing on Tuesday afternoon, a week after Gaia disappeared. They seized his VW Golf and obtained a warrant to search his father’s £460,000 bungalow in Romsey, Hampshire, on Tuesday.
According to his father, Paul Elsey claims he was in Weymouth, Dorset, on the day Gaia disappeared, carrying out work on a property he owns there. Last night he attacked the police, saying: ‘It’s disgusting how the police have performed. I wanted to make sure Paul had got legal representation before he was taken away. The only reason Paul has not been around is because he felt he would be victimised and so decided to stay out of the way.’
The flats belonging to Paul Elsey, his mother and Nathan are still being combed over by forensic officers and police and volunteers have been searching woodland around Swanage. Gaia’s family remain hopeful she is still alive.
Yesterday her father Richard Sutherland broke down in tears as he said: ‘We’ll get you back and we’ll have that big hug.’
Gaia’s actress mother, Natasha Pope, has urged people to check garages and vans in case she is being held against her will.
Detective Superintendent Paul Kessell s ai d s earches were ongoing and police ‘would not stop until we find Gaia’.