THE father of missing Caspar Blackburn from Sale has made an appeal to help find him.

Caspar was last seen outside the Slug and Lettuce at Sale on a bench in the early hours of Sunday morning and has not been seen since.

His father, Robert Blackburn, said his family cannot eat or sleep knowing he is missing and has now made an appeal for his son to come home.

He said: "Caspar, just let us know you’re alright, in any way whatsoever just let us know – come home – everything is alright, we love you and will give you a big hug when you’re home, you’re not in any trouble. Your little brother and sister want to see you."

He described Caspar as popular, sociable, outgoing, a good lad and good with money. He said he was a car enthusiast and regularly went to car meets.

He spoke about the Saturday evening: "It was a normal Saturday evening, we had tea and then Caspar was rushing about like he was in a rush to meet someone, he got his money and dashed out of the house.

"He forgot something and came back and said see you later as normal, like he always did.

"There was nothing out of the ordinary - his little sister said he looked like a 'beanie' and maybe he could have felt sensitive about what he was wearing – he changed his trousers and he left around 8/8:30pm.

"The first time I tried to contact him was around 10:20am on Sunday morning because he was supposed to be going to work and we had expected him home as normal. We thought he might have stayed at a friend's house. I tried to call him but his phone just went to voicemail.

"I wasn’t overly worried at this point. I just thought he had had a heavy night on the drink and he was hungover. I tried again about half an hour later but no answer, so waited until later that day because we remembered he had the Sunday off so there was no reason he had to be home.

"I started to worry on Monday when we had still not heard from him. His friend's girlfriend came to our house about 3:15 in the afternoon to see if we had heard from Caspar because none of his friends had heard from him.

"I was in shock – it’s not like Caspar at all. In the past he has always text if he was going to be late – we always knew what he was doing.

"We called 101 and was on hold for 20 minutes and then we called 999 and reported Caspar missing.

"The worst part is the not knowing anything or having any inkling.

"The young children are still going to school to keep it as normal as possible for them but we have informed the school that Caspar is missing and they are keeping an eye on them.

"The canal search is a major worry but the fact they have not found him yet gives us hope - it’s just a total mystery.

He urged anyone to report anything, no matter how trivial it may be.

He said: "It would mean the world for him to be home – I am so proud of him."

Police have released CCTV showing the last time Caspar was seen and are continuing their search of the Bridgewater Canal and surrounding areas. Officers say they will not stop until Caspar is found.