The mother of a missing Teesside prostitute says she pleaded with her daughter to give up hard drugs.

Rachel Wilson, 19, disappeared on 30 May, prompting concern from friends and family.

More than 40 police officers are involved in the search for the teenager, who was a user of crack cocaine.

But at a news conference in Middlesbrough today, her tearful mother Tina said Rachel had promised to end her addiction to drugs.

'Get help'

Mrs Wilson said: "I knew she was on drugs and I had asked her many times to come off them.

"All I wanted her to do was come off the drugs and try and get some help.

"She promised me she would. If she was away from home she would always get in touch.

"If anyone knows where she is all I'm asking is that they call the police, just so we know she is ok."

Police in Middlesbrough are carrying out house to house inquires as the search for the teenage prostitute is stepped up.

Red hatchback

More than forty police officers have been assigned to the case and an incident room has been set up at a police station in the town.

Ms Wilson is the third prostitute to go missing from Middlesbrough in the last four years.

Donna Keogh, 17, vanished in April 1998, after reports she was seen getting into a red hatchback car.

Her disappearance was re-examined after 21-year-old prostitute Vicky Glass was murdered in 2000.