Leah Croucher ‘spotted with “controlling” man at airport weeks after teen vanished three years ago, new witness claims

MISSING Leah Croucher was spotted with a controlling man at an airport weeks after vanishing three years ago, a new witness claimed.

The teen asked a man where they were going and he repeatedly warned her not to tell anyone she was travelling with him, they alleged. 

Leah Croucher was last seen on CCTV in February 2019 in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.

The businesswoman witness, 37, claimed she saw a girl who looked like her at Luton Airport while at passport control and said the girl told officials her name was Leah. It is unclear if it was definitely her.

She said: "My first thought was ‘what a lovely young girl’ and my second was that the man she was with was being very controlling.

"The girl was asking him questions about what they would do when they arrived and where they would stay.

"She seemed worried. The man kept telling her: ’You’ll find out that when you get there.’ His tone was not nice.

"It just didn't make sense to me. As a mum, I couldn't help worrying about this girl called Leah."

She lived in Holland at the time and was unaware of Leah Croucher's case until six months later, when she moved to Britain and saw giant missing-person banners Leah's family put on bridges.

And she insisted it was the same girl that she saw at the airport, adding: "Her hair was an auburn colour and it was long, very thick and slightly wavy. She was wearing dark-framed glasses.

"She had light make-up on and was dressed in black and a chestnut colour. She was wearing a skirt that came just above her knee and calf-length boots with block heels.

"I am 5ft 2in tall and I would put her at about my height.”

She described the man as Asian with gelled black hair and a trimmed beard in his late 20s or early 30s. But she could not remember where they said they were travelling to.

Thames Valley Police's DCI Andy Howard said in January: "There is no evidence to suggests that she has left the UK."

Last year an old photograph showing a figure in black on a mobile phone was hoped to provide clues to the disappearance.

It came after a satellite picture of a "girl in a red blanket" spotted on Google Earth appeared to show a girl resembling the teenager.

Police also investigated reports of a woman seen crying at a lake in November.

Some sleuths fear she was the victim of sex trafficking.

Police appealed for anyone who knew anything about the disappearance to contact police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, adding that there was a £20,000 reward for information.