THE father of missing York chef Claudia Lawrence has acted with dignity throughout the search for his daughter, a friend has said.

Martin Dales, a friend of Peter Lawrence, spoke yesterday on the 1,000th day since Claudia disappeared.

Mr Dales said: “I find it difficult to accept that, 1,000 days later, we have no conclusion as to what has happened to Claudia.

“A huge amount of time, energy, effort and emotion has gone, and continues to go on, in the campaign to find her.

“As a long-standing friend of Peter Lawrence, he has my unerring admiration for the dignity with which he has carried the burden along this sad journey we have travelled together. A thousand days ago, he asked me to help him and I said I would: nothing has changed and I will be alongside him until he finds Claudia.”

Claudia was last seen alive on March 18, 2009. She did not turn up for work at the University of York the next day and despite a massive police investigation, nobody has yet been charged.

As exclusively revealed in The Press yesterday, police say they are now working on a significant new lead in the case, and hope to reveal more within days.