A FATHER-of-two who went missing for a month after he disappeared during a family outing is back at home with his family.

The Press told last month how Christopher Patrick Mendez, known as "Paddy", was believed to have been busking and sleeping rough in York after vanishing in Newcastle.

His wife, Jan, 53, and their eight-year-old twin daughters, Chloe and Astrid, urged the York public to help them find him and they spent ten days frantically searching the city.

But then Paddy sent them a letter and £70 with an Oxford postmark on the envelope.

They followed him to Oxford, where Jan eventually found him on Monday.

She said: "Paddy is at home and safe, but he is very poorly."

She said she was still too exhausted and emotional to talk about what had happened, but thanked The Press readers for their help.

The family are now back together at their home in Hardy Grove, Wallsend.

Paddy, 37, was undergoing tests for a kidney illness and had been suffering from depression before he vanished.

Jan searched York after at least 15 people reported seeing him here, busking with his clarinet.

Paddy had not been seen by his family since he drove off during a family trip to McDonald's, in Newcastle, on Friday, July 28.

He took off after shouting at his children.

Jan said the outburst was out of character and she believes he was driven away by guilt.

By the time the family returned to their Newcastle home he had abandoned the car and disappeared.

He left a note saying: "I'm going away.

"I would like to be a nice daddy who tells stories and makes things. I don't want to be crazy daddy who shouts and frightens the animals."

A member of the public spotted Mr Mendez busking with a saxophone in Witney, near Oxford, on Saturday and rang the police.

Officers spoke to him and said he was okay but not yet ready to go home.

He was eventually reunited with Jan and the girls on Monday - exactly a month after he disappeared.