Father of missing toddler Katrice Lee, who disappeared more than 40 years ago, vows to hand his army medals back to Downing Street in protest at handling of case

The anguished father of a toddler who disappeared more than 40 years ago will march to Downing Street and hand in his army medals in protest at what he believes are mistakes in how the case was handled.

Katrice Lee was celebrating her second birthday on November 28, 1981, when she disappeared from a supermarket close to a British military base in Paderborn, West Germany.

At the time, her father, Richard, was stationed there as a sergeant-major in the 15th/19th. The King’s Royal Hussars of the British Army.

He, his wife, Sharon, and Katrice’s aunt, Wendy, drove the youngster to the nearby Naafi (Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes) supermarket to buy items for her birthday party.

When Katrice refused to go in a trolley, her mother carried her around the supermarket before placing her at the till.

Sharon briefly left the youngster to buy some crisps, but when she returned the toddler was no longer there.

Katrice has never been seen since, with an initial investigation drawing a complete blank.

The family believe the authorities, including the army, the Royal Military Police and successive governments, failed to properly investigate the case.

But even more than four decades later, Mr Lee, from Hartlepool, still wants answers.

He believes someone took his daughter and has called for an independent investigation into what really happened on that fateful day.

Lee now plans to march to Downing Street on May 31, accompanied by other veterans, where he will return two of the medals he received during 34 years of distinguished service, BBC reports.

These include his Northern Ireland General Service Medal and another awarded for 30 years’ service and good conduct.

He maintains that the lack of support he and his family received had ‘devalued’ his medals.

Speaking about events at the time of his daughter’s disappearance, Mr. Lee: ‘We were on a lifeboat that had been cut adrift, tossing and turning with no one to guide us and hold our hand.’

In an interview with the TheWSTNews in December, the family talked about how they had wished an independent investigation and that the search for Katrice should be handed over to a civilian police force – as would have happened if the family had been in Germany on holiday.

Lee said: ‘This has always been under the jurisdiction of the Royal Military Police, who were out of their league from the start.

‘The lies and cover-ups since have beggared belief, and all the while there is a chance that Katrice is still out there, living with another family, unaware that she herself is Katrice.’

Katrice’s sister Natasha said: ‘My dad was prepared to give his life for Queen and country so these medals mean everything to him.

“But Katrice, and the truth of what happened to her, matters more.”

The disappearance of their daughter took its toll on the Lees and the couple separated in 1989, but they remain united in their search for Katrice.

Natasha said: ‘Both my parents are in their 70s. I don’t want them to go to their graves not knowing what happened.

In the years since her disappearance, little progress has been made in the investigation.

Lee had been scheduled to meet with then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, but it was canceled due to the Falklands War.

In 2012, the family received an apology from the Royal Military Police for failings in the initial investigation and reopened an investigation under the name Operation Bute.

Then in 2017 the government agreed to review the case and an e-fit of a man seen putting a child in a car that had been created shortly after the youth’s disappearance was released.

A year later, more than 100 soldiers excavated the Alme River, close to where Katrice disappeared, in the hope of finding answers.

In 2019, a man was arrested in connection with her disappearance, but was subsequently released without charge.

In 2022, a long-promised ‘father-to-father’ meeting with then-prime minister Boris Johnson took place, but Richard says: ‘Nothing came of it. I wrote afterwards asking for an inquiry and for Katrice’s case to be investigated by a civilian force as it would have been if we had been any other family.’

He never got an answer. “Politicians move on,” he says. ‘We can not.’

In a statement to MailOnline, a Ministry of Defense spokesperson: ‘Our sympathies are with Richard Lee and his family as they continue to search for answers.

‘The Defense Serious Crime Command and Unit, which is now taking priority over the investigation, continues to welcome any further information that may assist in establishing Katrice’s whereabouts.’

• Anyone with information about Katrice’s disappearance in 1981 can contact the Royal Military Police on social media X at @operationbute or by phone on 0800 616888.