Mum pleads for her son’s return after disappearing in Portugal with his dad

The heartbroken mother of a boy who vanished while on holiday with his dad eight months ago has made an emotional plea for his safe return - on his 14th birthday. Distraught Rebecca Jones, 35, begged her ex-partner Andrew Pearson, 33, to let their teen Jayden Pearson return home and end her "living nightmare". The lad has not been heard from since he went on holiday to Portugal with his dad Andrew, a plasterer, last September. They jetted off for a ten-day sunshine break to the Algarve region, but when Rebecca sent a taxi to pick Jayden up from the airport, he was nowhere to be seen. And the mum-of-two feared she would never see him again when her ex-partner blocked her number and left her in the dark about the schoolboy’s whereabouts. When terrified Rebecca reported her son missing and flew to Portugal to search for him, she claimed Andrew sent her sinister texts before completely cutting her off. But today (Thurs) she said it would be the "greatest gift ever" to have her son Jayden back home with her in Doncaster, South Yorks. Rebecca begged: “It would be the best gift ever to see his face again. Just let this living nightmare end. “If you see this, Jayden, I wish you a happy birthday. I love you so much. “It’s heartbreaking to be in this situation. I don’t know if I’m ever going to see him again. We should be celebrating together. “He’s got a sack full of birthday cards. He can open them when he’s back home. His little brother Mathew has even bought him a bracelet that says ‘brother’. “We are putting up balloons, and we’re going to have a Chinese – his favourite food” Asked what her message to Andrew would be, she added: “Put him on a plane and send him home. We will be waiting for him on the other end ready to hold him and not let him go. “Think about these boys – they deserve to be together. I just want to be a mum to Jayden.” Rebecca said Andrew had volunteered to take Jayden away on break to the city of Lagos, on Portugal’s southern tip, in September last year. She'd retained custody of Jayden and his brother, Mathew, 11, since 2019 after her relationship broke down with Andrew, but agreed to let him go on the holiday. NHS healthcare assistant Rebecca said the pair were booked on a 6.45pm flight home and due to arrive at East Midlands Airport on September 14 last year at 10pm. She even had a taxi waiting for them at the arrival gate, but was left frantic when they failed to show up before realising Andrew had blocked her number on his phone. Rebecca said: “At first, I kept trying to call him, kept trying to text him. I thought something had happened. I thought he might have had an accident. "And then he blocked me, and blocked all my family.” “It was just a holiday. When he didn’t return I was numb, I was worried, I was scared and I was heartbroken.” Rebecca said she had kept trying to reach Andrew and when that failed, she reported both him and her son as missing to UK police on around September 22 last year. The distressed mum went on to create posters and shared them on social media in the hope that someone would see Jayden’s face and identify his whereabouts. But after Andrew was sighted and photographed at a farm resort in the Nazaré region of Portugal, 250 miles from Lagos, she received threatening messages from him about her heartfelt pleas. They read: “Well done. Thanks… You’ve successfully f*cked us both. Clap clap. Hopefully no f*cking bears eat us! “If we successfully make it to Bulgaria I will make contact then. Good night sleep well!” Rebecca flew out to Portugal on January 22 this year, in the hope of finding Jayden before reporting them both as missing to local authorities six days later. She said Portuguese police had searched the farm resort where Andrew was spotted three times, but none of these investigations had tuned up any new clues. Rebecca now thinks that Andrew had planned all along to use the trip to take her son away from her and split up their children. She said: “It was a holiday for him – it was meant to be a ten-day holiday. He organized it. At the time, I didn’t suspect anything. But now I feel like he planned it all along.” Rebecca organised a birthday party for Jayden in his absence with his family in the same way they celebrate every year. But she remained increasingly worried about her son’s health and well-being, while angry with Andrew for taking him away. She said: “I trusted the man who I had children with and he did this. “I don’t believe that Jayden's needs are being met. He is not at school. He’s going into year ten in September. He needs to be sitting his GCSE. “I feel every day is long and hard. I feel like every day we are waking up to this living nightmare that’s not going to end any time soon. “But the UK and Portugal police have been very useful and very supportive.” A spokesperson from South Yorkshire Police said: “We understand how distressing this is for the family and have been in frequent contact with them. “We continue to support the investigation and work with the relevant authorities to help with their enquiries.” Attempts were made to contact Andrew Pearson for comment.