On July 2nd 2000, I received a telephone call from my daughter Sophie, to say that my eldest daughter Lucie had gone missing in Tokyo. There followed the most traumatic nine months of my life while Japanese Police tried to find her.

Sophie and I made numerous trips to Tokyo which were covered extensively on Television and in Newspapers. Eventually she was found dead in an isolated cave. Her body had been dismembered so that her killer could dispose of her. Being involved in the real life drama of searching for Lucie, it became apparent how desperate it is when there’s not enough information to help find missing people. We thought Lucie was alive and being kept hostage, how wrong we were!

Now we know the whole story, I can look back on the events in detail and see what went wrong on Lucie’s day out to the coast. On the 1st of July, she was picked up by her date in his sports car, to go to the coast. She told her roommate that she was going to the seaside but she was unclear whom my daughter was with. After a couple of hours Lucie made contact to say what time she wanted to be home. It soon became apparent she wouldn’t make that deadline due the distance she was from Tokyo. She rang her friend again who was just leaving for work - this was the last time anyone heard from her.

A Japanese man is currently on trial over Lucie’s death which is why I can’t go into detail but a witness stated she saw Lucie, and she appeared to be distressed and not happy to be where she was. You can only conclude that the day’s events were now out of her control.

In the aftermath of Lucie’s death, I have become very much more aware of how often terrible things happen to children and adults alike and felt I wanted to do something - for Lucie - which would really make a difference. I have worked with Dave Russell, an ITV journalist who has travelled three times to Tokyo to cover the events, to develop this simple but thorough system which is SafetyText.

An event like this is just unbelievable - and the worst of all nightmares. But it happens to little children and grown adults alike - and indeed the variation of these events seems endless. Lucie has inspired SafetyText which is for your protection, and that of your children. As I have unfortunately discovered, you never know what tomorrow will bring.

Tim Blackman, Lucie’s father