Mirror article states the day we met Dan, who believes he is the only one of 35-year-old Claudia’s long-term boyfriends who wasn’t married or attached, met her in April 2004, when he visited her home town of Malton, Yorks, for a rugby tournament.
“I saw her sitting there on her own, talking to the bar staff and thought who’s the stunning blonde?” he says. “She looked radiant – full of life. We got chatting, and at the end of the night we swapped numbers.”
The pair had their first date a week later and an intense, whirlwind romance followed.
“Claudia is a kind, beautiful girl who was desperate to be loved,” says Dan. “There was a very romantic side to her, which made her naive about men, more naive than you’d expect for a woman of her age.
“She was quite gullible in fact. And that’s the concern – that she’s now come to harm because of a guy she might have fallen for.”
In July 2004 they flew to Cyprus for a two-week holiday in Cyprus. They enjoyed it so much that they went back the next month. And the following year they returned for a third holiday.
In August 2006 they split but stayed in phone contact.