Video footage of a missing student's last-known steps is being used by his family to help trace him.

Mike Gibson and Jo Gibson-Clark handed out videos of their son Eddie attending a Cambodian funeral in an emotional plea for information.

Eddie, 20, a former Cardinal Newman School pupil from Hove, disappeared in Cambodia last year after telling his parents he was on his way home.

Since Christmas, his family has spent more than £10,000 to fly out to Cambodia three times and search for him.

On the last trip, Mr Gibson met a local girl with whom Eddie had had a holiday romance. She showed him the taped footage of her father's funeral on October 14, which Eddie attended.

Mr Gibson said: "It quite clearly shows Eddie. It was very strange seeing my son in the middle of a family's private funeral. You could see he had some affection for the girl because they were close together.

"Fortunately he looked well. He looked like our Eddie, fit and strong. There was no sense of any deterioration. It was very upsetting to watch."

The family, who live in Hove, hope viewers may recognise Eddie from the film and come forward with vital information.

Mr Gibson said: "Somebody must know what happened to him."

Eddie started a course in Asian and Pacific studies and international management at Leeds University in September before dropping out unexpectedly and flying to Cambodia, where he had spent time during his gap year.

The last sighting of him was on October 23 in Phnom Penh when he told the Cambodian girl he was going to Thailand but would return.

The following day he sent an email to his mother saying he had booked a flight home but he failed to catch it.

There are no records Eddie left the country and so his family, including his brothers Elliott, 26, and Max, 16, have assumed he is still in Cambodia.

Eddie has now been missing for six months and made no contact with his family during Christmas or on his 20th birthday in January.

Mr Gibson said: "It's been a living nightmare. We all miss him terribly. There is not a day that goes by when we don't think of him."

Eddie's mother, Jo, was distressed to learn on her visit to Cambodia in February that five Westerners had died in the previous few weeks from drug overdoses.

She said: "It is very hard to imagine when you come back to Britain because everything is so civilised. I had to keep going back in my mind about how the culture was so different and life is so cheap out there.

"I was being told by Cambodian people that my son was dead, that he would have been stabbed and murdered because he was Western. I was sick with horror."

Mr Gibson said: "I know he is very resourceful. Maybe he doesn't want to come home and has things to sort out. That's what gives us hope."

The family has launched a hotline number in Cambodia and have another set up with Sussex Police.

Mr Gibson said: "There are thousands of people returning from the Far East and someone might know something about Eddie. Then there are many youngsters in the UK who are about to go on gap years and might see something."

The family is being supported by Tim Blackman, whose daughter Lucie, 21, went missing while she was working in a nightclub in Japan in July 2000.

Her body was found in a remote village outside Tokyo in February 2001.

He said: "I have got a lot of experience in terms of dealing with the authorities and I hope I can give some of that to Mike and Jo to help get their message out to people."