Husband of missing PC appeals for help: Fears for safety of officer who disappeared from hospital during treatment for post-natal depression

THE HUSBAND of a policewoman missing for more than two days appealed yesterday to the public to help find her after she disappeared from hospital suffering from severe post-natal depression.

PC Diane Mostyn, 28, a member of the Metropolitan Police's mounted section, left James, her eight-month-old son, at the Central Middlesex Hospital on Tuesday and was last seen the following day in Northampton.

Her husband, Paul, a constable serving in Hendon, north London, said Diane was thin and gaunt and likely to be dishevelled and distressed. He feared for her safety after a suicide attempt in November when she took a combination of alcohol and pills before being found in a field near her home in Hertfordshire. 'My biggest fear is that she is lying in a field somewhere waiting to be found. I would give anything to know where she is and that she is safe and well,' he said.

'Baby James really needs his mum. Although Diane has had problems, I know that in time and with the right help, things can be sorted out.'

Police believe that Mrs Mostyn may have been on her way to visit her parents in Preston when she boarded the wrong train from Watford Junction, where she had spoken to a fireman on the platform. She was last seen in the Co-op store in Abington Street, Northampton, where she bought a boxed bottle of whisky which she said was for her father.

Carrying the whisky in a Co-op carrier bag, she was later captured on film by an in-store video camera. A withdrawal from a cash machine confirms that she was still in Northampton at 7.40pm on Wednesday, but there have been no further sightings. She left hospital without her medicine and with no change of clothes. She had about pounds 40 cash and later withdrew pounds 60.

Mr Mostyn said his wife had returned to work in November after suffering a bout of depression, but had then had a recurrence of the illness. She had walked out of the house, saying she was going to get her hair cut, and did not come home. After she was discovered in the field she was taken to the mother and baby unit at Central Middlesex, and treatment for post- natal depression began.

'I would visit her every day before going to work. I last saw Diane on Tuesday at about 1pm. She seemed remarkably well. There was no indication that she had any intention of leaving the hospital which is why this has been such a shock to me,' he said. James, their first child, is being looked after by Mr Mostyn's parents.

Mr Mostyn, who has been in the Metropolitan Police for 10 years, said: 'This is not the baby blues although it started with the baby blues. Unfortunately, due to my ignorance we did not take her to any help and it came up very, very quickly.' His wife joined the police nine years ago.

(Photographs omitted)