Wife of missing UK sailor in Dubai posts moving message on his birthday

"Distance and time will never stop me from loving you," wrote Rachael MacColl, the wife of the British sailor who disappeared in Dubai, on the Facebook wall of the Bring Timmy Home group.

DUBAI // The wife of missing British seaman Timmy MacColl has sent a moving message to her husband to mark his 28th birthday today.

Mr MacColl disappeared in May while on shore leave in Dubai after his ship, HMS Westminster, docked at Port Rashid.

"Today is your birthday, you should be 28 but I'll never know if the years still age you or if you'll stay eternally young forever," Rachael MacColl, 25, said on the Facebook page of the Bring Timmy Home group.

"Distance and time will never stop me from loving you, one day in this life or after we can celebrate all the things we missed, forever in my thoughts as always."

Mrs MacColl, 25, from Gosport in Hampshire, gave birth to the couple's third child, a girl called Eriskay, last month. The couple also have a son, Cameron, 7, and another daughter, Skye, 4.

Lisa Jane Glover, one of the administrators of the Facebook group, wrote: "We just want this loving family man home to his family where he belongs!"

Mr MacColl's birthday falls on Trafalgar Day, which celebrates Britain's naval victory over the French and Spanish fleets on October 21, 1805.

British prime minister David Cameron has refused to comment on the MacColl case even though the leading seaman disappeared while serving with the navy. The deployment of the UK's armed forces is determined by the prime minister.

A spokesman at Mr Cameron's office said: "The PM will not be providing a comment."