Claudia Lawrence message board closed over abuse

Claudia Lawrence has been missing for 13 months

A website message board set up to help find missing York chef Claudia Lawrence has been removed after it was used to target her friends with abuse.

The board was set up in May last year to help trace Miss Lawrence who was last seen leaving work at the University of York on 18 March 2009.

But the board's creators said it was "hijacked" by people attacking Miss Lawrence's close friends.

A spokesman for her father, Peter Lawrence, said it was upsetting.

The police investigation into Miss Lawrence's disappearance has focused on her love life and other platonic relationships that her family and friends did not know about.

'Evil people'

Numerous appeals for information have been made by her father and the hunt for her has taken detectives to Cyprus and the Republic of Ireland.

Her disappearance is being treated as suspected murder.

Family spokesman Martin Dales said: "One of the ideas of the message board was that people could leave information and good wishes that were good for the family and made them feel supported.

"[The board] seemed to be hijacked by what I would describe as evil people determined to pull down some friends and have a go at the family.

"In the end we got to the point where it was just grossly unfair on people."

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