Fisherman's teenage wife speaks of her ordeal

THE wife of missing Weston fisherman Alan Wright says she has little hope he will be found alive and is lost without him around.

Samantha Wright, aged 19, has paid tribute to her 26-year-old husband, who is thought to have been swept into the sea while fishing off rocks below Birnbeck Pier a week ago.

Now she says their family and two-year-old son Dylan only expect to hear news his body has been found.

A massive search and rescue operation was launched last week after two witnesses saw a man falling into the water.

Samantha, of Grasmere Drive says the first she knew about the incident was when she went down to the seafront to find Alan because he had not turned up for his lift home.

She said: "I tried ringing his mobile quite a few times but he did not answer.

"When I went down to the seafront there were members of the coastguard already starting to search for someone.

"I asked them what they were doing and explained that I did not know where Alan was."

Alan's 24-year-old brother, Tony, and their uncle, Gary Pitman, travelled to Weston from Birmingham that evening and searched the area around Birnbeck Pier when the tide went out at around 1am on Friday. Since then they have searched the rocks themselves numerous times.

Gary said: "At first we were hoping to possibly find him alive but then we realised we would be looking for a body."

The search and rescue operation, which began on February 7, was called off on Monday and the coastguard told Gary it could be two or three weeks before they find a body.

Alan, who worked as an accountant clerk at John Hodge in Weston, only took up sea fishing a year ago.

Samantha, who works at Tesco, said: "Any chance Alan had he would be out fishing, he just loved it."

Samantha, who had been married to Alan for three years, said: "He used to do everything with me and Dylan. Anytime I needed to speak to him, even if he was really busy, he would always make time for me.

"He was just so caring."

Gary has also described him as an excellent dad who would always be playing with Dylan.

The 42-year-old has also hit out at the lack of signs along Weston's seafront warning people about the strong tide, which has the second biggest rise and fall in the world.

He said: "I have only ever seen one very small sign warning of a strong current.

"Alan did not have a clue about the strength of the water in the area. The first time I found out about it was when I saw a member of the coastguard talking about it on TV.

"There were people fishing in a similar area just two days after Alan went missing. Without any warnings this could easily happen to someone else."

Alan's parents Sharon, aged 44, and 47-year-old Steve, along with their 10-year-old son Christopher, have been living in Greece for five years but came to Weston on Monday to be with the rest of their family. They have since visited the spot where Alan was fishing when he went missing.

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