Hunt For Four Children Missing With Mother

A High Court judge has appealed for the public's help in finding four children who have gone missing with their mother following a care dispute.

Jessica, Tomas, Eva and David Palacin Jones, who are aged between 14 and eight, were apparently taken from their mother Jennifer Jones' house in Wales.

They were due to be returned to their Spanish father Tomas Palacin Cambra, 52, on Friday.

When they were not returned, Mrs Jones was ordered to attend a High Court hearing in London on Monday, where Mr Justice Roderic Wood said the children should be placed in care over fears she would abscond with them.

But when police arrived to remove them from her home in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire on Tuesday morning, they were gone.

"I am very concerned about the children," said the judge at a hearing in the High Court’s Family Division.

"They must be found. I ask anyone who knows where they are or might have seen them to tell this court or the local police."

He added: "All these children are now missing. The mother removed them from her home in the middle of the night. Her and her children's whereabouts are unknown. I do not know the mother's intentions."

The judge ruled that Jessica 14, Tomas 12, Eva, nine and David, eight, could be identified and authorised photographs of the children to be released.

He said Mrs Jones had previously abducted the children from Spain in 2009.

Lawyers for Mr Palacin Cambra, who lives in Majorca, said they feared Mrs Jones, 46, had gone "underground" with the four children.

They said he was "devastated" at losing his children, who are all bilingual and speak fluent Spanish as well as English with a Welsh accent.

Mrs Jones and the children are thought to be with her partner, John Williams, who has family in the Swansea area.

She speaks with a strong Welsh accent and is slim, about 5ft 7in, with strawberry blonde wavy hair and brown eyes.

Mr Williams was said to be in his late 40s or 50s, taller than Mrs Jones and well-built.