I am sure she is incapacitated in some way, or has come to harm by falling from a cliff or something

Phillip Kerton

"It is very significant because they were very close, and we were aware that if she was in her right mind, she would have made contact."

Mr Kerton, 56, said Kent Police told him that German police had raided the family home of his daughter's fiance, Peter Simon, in the town of Strassfield, near Aachen.

He said: "I was informed that police had searched Peter's home and garden with sniffer dogs to eliminate it as a possible crime scene.

"It shows that at long last the German police are starting to take this seriously and not believe everything they have been told without checking it themselves."

No official sightings

Miss Kerton, a former classmate of Lucie Blackman, the British woman murdered in Japan, was dropped off at Aachen railway station by her fiance's mother Ramana Simon.

She was then due to travel from Aachen to Ostend in Belgium on 30 July, and on to Dover to meet her fiance.

When the 24-year-old failed to arrive a search began involving police from Germany, Belgium and the UK.

Although there have been no official sightings of his daughter since, Mr Kerton has conducted searches of Aachen after a number of reported sightings.

He said: "We are not going back to Aachen to look for her unless we have reason to do so.

"I am sure she is incapacitated in some way, or has come to harm by falling from a cliff or something."