Derek Hicks still believes Christmas Day could be the day his son Kevin returns home but so far he has watched 16 years go by without a trace of the teenager who left home to buy eggs.

Sixteen-year-old Kevin Hicks had sat down to have Sunday lunch with his family and even helped his dad wash up afterwards at their home in Sissinghurst Road, Addiscombe on March 2, 1986.

At 8pm, Kevin told his mother he needed some eggs for a GCSE Home Economics exam the next day and left his house to go to Lower Addiscombe Road's 7 Eleven but was never seen again.

Derek Hicks returned home from an emergency at work at 9pm but when Kevin still was not back at 11pm, he drove around looking for him.

Mr Hicks, 57, said: "If he was going to be late, he'd always phone home. I started phoning up his friends then I phoned the police."

At 1am Derek was standing in South Norwood Police station and the next morning the police visited John Ruskin School to interview his friends.

In the weeks to come, finger-tip searches were carried out at nearby parks, railway stations and Shirley Hills but not a trace of Kevin was found.

Mr Hicks said: "I would be out looking for him but I didn't know where to look, so I'd just look anywhere."

Kevin's disappearance was aired on CrimeWatch in May 1986 and another CrimeWatch appearance was scheduled for July but was pulled when Susie Lamplugh went missing.

Kevin's mother Terry began making contact with Susie Lamplugh's mother Diana, who went on to set up the Susie Lamplugh Trust which later became the National Missing Person's Helpline.

Weeks turned to months and months to years.

"CrimeWatch led to sightings in Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh and initially we drove to places to look for him but we soon settled down realising the number of sightings couldn't all be him," explained Derek.

In September 1988, 15-year-old Lee Boxall went missing from Sutton and Lee's mother Christine and Terry Hicks were able to lean on each other for support.

Kevin's mother died of a brain tumour at the age of 42 in October 1994, having just made a television appeal for news about her son. Derek still lives in the house Kevin grew up in after his wife asked him never to move away.

"The first Christmas was hard but we celebrated it because we had a daughter to think about."

Christmas and the new year is followed by Kevin's birthday on February 9 and the anniversary of his disappearance in March.

Derek's daughter Alex, whose birthday is the day before Kevin's birthday, has since had a family of her own but Derek says she is very protective of her two daughters aged nine and 12.

He said: "Even today when I was on the way to this interview, I was looking along the road at the people to see if any of them might be Kevin. Not knowing is worse than news of his death."

The national missing person's helpline has a photo of Kevin artificially aged to depict him as a 32-year-old. The police file into Kevin's disappearance remains open and anyone with information can call investigators on 020 8649 0132.