Claudia Lawrence detectives reveal new information on disappearance

The long and repeatedly frustrated inquiry into the suspected murder of York chef Claudia Lawrence took another twist today when police revealed that she spent a night shortly before her disappearance with a man who has failed to come forward. Speaking on the first anniversary of the last sighting of the 35-year-old, detectives described the information as "extremely hot intelligence which has come to us only today". The belated news, passed on by a friend of Lawrence's who spoke to her shortly before she failed to turn up for work at York University, joins a succession of snippets of information which still fail to form a clear picture of the missing woman's personal life. Her sister Ali Sims said in an interview to mark the anniversary that the lack of names and details in the "spate of revelations" might be due to people trying to protect their own privacy. "I know that some people, if they had a relationship with Claudia, will want to save their existing relationship," she said. "But I think they should put that aside. They need to come forward." She described as unfair the image of her sister as being casual in her private life, which included a regular sexual relationship with a man – not the one in the latest revelation – who already had a long-term partner. Sims said: "It's almost gone out of control and she is not around to defend herself. She is single, she has had boyfriends, but she has not gone out to hurt people." Lawrence was last seen at her home in the York suburb of Heworth, from which she often walked to work at the university, following a regular route. Police are working on the presumption that her disappearance was not a chance incident, but involved someone she knew. Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway, who heads the North Yorkshire police inquiry, said: "Critically, information has come to us only today whereby we understand that Claudia said that she was out on one of the nights which immediately preceded her disappearance – out into the very early hours with what she described as a boyfriend. "We are talking deep into the night, half past four or five o'clock in the morning. That is something we didn't know previously. I'm appealing to that man: please come forward. There is nothing suspicious in that, it is just that we need to eliminate you from our investigation." Galloway admitted the inquiry had been dogged by people giving late or partial information and regretted a "reluctance to be candid". The new development was based on a friend who commented to Lawrence shortly before she disappeared that she looked tired, and was told by her about the late night with the boyfriend. Galloway said: "Very few people actually knew what Claudia did when she went home and closed the doors. But this would appear to be reliable information and I have got no reason to doubt it. It is significant that we do identify who the person is." Lawrence's mother, Joan, said she found it hard to believe that a year had passed without news of her daughter. She thanked everyone for keeping the case in the public eye and appealed for that to continue. Her husband, Peter, who separated from her several years ago, is spending the day giving interviews appealing for a breakthrough. The couple are to re-check their and their daughter's diaries to see if entries shed light on the new information.