Lester McLennan's mum issues urgent appeal as searches for missing man continue

The mum of a man who has been missing in Northern Ireland for almost two weeks said she fears they're now "looking for a body" as searches wind down.

Lester McLennan from London was on a family holiday visiting a recently bereaved relative in Belfast, when at approximately 9.30am on Friday, November 1, he travelled by himself to the Giant's Causeway area by bus.

A keen hiker, having previously walked the West Highland Way in Scotland, the 20-year-old was excited to walk along the stunning North Coast of Northern Ireland and see the sights along the way.

Read more: PSNI renew missing person appeal as 20-year-old last seen four days ago

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However, Lester has not been seen since November 1, when at around 2pm he was sighted speaking with a tour guide on the cliff path near Lacada Point, before setting off in the direction of Dunseverick Castle.

Lester is a white male, 6’3” tall, of slim build with light brown hair and was wearing black glasses, light beige trousers with a dark belt, walking boots, a long grey coat to below the knee and a dark zip up jacket. He was also carrying a black backpack.

Speaking to Belfast Live almost two weeks on, Lester's distraught mum, Lalitha McLennan, said: "I'm coming over to Belfast this week, to go back up the coast and try to distribute as many leaflets as I can. I'm also going to go into pubs and shops to ask people if they've seen anything.

"Search teams had drones up yesterday between Lacada and Ballycastle, including White Park Bay. So they've done a very thorough search with these drones there.

"There are bits they can't get to along the coast, the likes of caves, nooks and crannies, but they've done as much as they can along there. They've also searched up to 500 metres back from the cliff edge inland. They're reviewing all drone footage this evening to see if there's any evidence."

In the latest appeal for information, issued on November 5, the PSNI said they are keen to speak to the members of public who located Lester's black backpack in the Giant's Causeway area and passed it on to staff.

Lalitha said as of yet, they have not heard from those who handed the bag in. She added: "The two people who handed Lester's backpack in did have a foreign accent, but the staff who it was handed into didn't have any idea where the accent might be from.

"Police have been going to hotels and hostels locally to see if those backpackers turned up there. We have family in Australia who have been reaching out to people on social media who were in the area that day, but we haven't had any luck yet."

As for Lester's last known sighting and his love of hiking, Lalitha added: "He was last seen at 2pm on the cliff path near Lacada Point. He spoke to a tour guide, who said Lester was asking questions about other sites of interest up along the coast. When they finished talking, Lester walked off in the direction of Dunseverick Castle.

"Lester is a keen hiker, he could just march along. He's quite tall with long legs, he could go really fast so he could have covered quite a long distance.

"He could also rough it, he'd walked the West Highland Way before, he would be happy to sleep out rough. Although he wasn't prepared to do that, if it got dark, he might have, he would have found shelter and hunkered down for the night. But I'm pretty sure he would have made contact with us if that happened."

This Friday marks two weeks since Lester went missing, with Lalitha saying searches are now beginning to reduce due to a lack of leads or further information to guide the search.

She said: "I'm thinking that we're now looking for a body, I doubt he's going to be alive at this point. But I really would like to find his body and bring him home.

"He's a young person who found lockdown quite difficult and had not managed to do his A Levels. But he just started college in September and looking at his diary entries, it was so lovely, he'd written "college!!!" as he was really excited about it.

"He was telling me about what he was doing, he was enjoying the people he'd met and he was making an application to university, and he was talking about that.

"Lester said he could really see a future for himself and that was so lovely to hear, given that he'd had a difficult few years when lockdown was on. He was just coming out of that, which was so nice to see. Things were coming together for him again."

Issuing a direct appeal to anyone who lives around the North Coast area, Lalitha said: "If you live around there or know that area, if it's possible to check any places inland, I feel the coast has been well checked and I don't want anyone to put themselves at risk as it's a dangerous coast.

"But if anyone is walking in that area or owns land in that area, if you could check your land and check outhouses and see if anybody's curled up in under a hedge somewhere, that would be amazing.

"We're all missing him so much. There are so many people missing him, and we just want to bring him home."

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