A DESPERATE mother made an emotional appeal for her missing daughter to get in touch saying: "Alex, please, please come home."

Tamsin Leverton held back tears as she pleaded for her 14-year-old daughter Alex Heamen to let someone know she was safe.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday she said: "Alex's nickname is Bear and has been since she was born. Bear please, please come home. I love and miss you so very much and just want you home safe and sound where you belong."

Police efforts to find Alex, missing since September 1, have been stepped up. Officers are conducting house-to- house inquiries and hundreds of posters have been put up in Lewes and Brighton, where she was last seen on the Palace Pier on September 4 with two men.

Miss Leverton, 33, said: "I would like to say to Alex if you are reading this I beg you to get in touch with me, the police or your friends. You are not in any trouble whatsoever.

"I love and miss you very much. We all do. Doug, Grandma and Grampy, all the family. Grandma and Grampy have travelled from Cornwall to be here for you. Please if you don't want to call anyone else call your grandma on your mobile.

"To Alex's friends and parents of those friends if you have any information at all no matter how small or insignificant you feel it is please get in touch."

Alex's mother is being supported by a family liaison officer as she waits for news of her only child.

Her mobile phone has not been used since she sent her mother a text message two days after leaving her home in Abergavenny Road, Lewes, on September 1 to meet friends in Brighton for the weekend.

She did not return on Sunday in time for the new term at Priory School in Lewes where she was due to begin her GCSE studies.

There has been no trace of her since the sighting on the Palace Pier two weeks ago. Alex has been missing before but never for this long.

There have been unconfirmed sightings of her in the Landport and Ousedale areas of Lewes and police are continuing to examine CCTV tapes of the Palace Pier and Brighton beach.

Detective Superintendent Russ Whitfield, leading the investigation, urged Alex to make contact.

He said: "I must reiterate, Alex is not in any trouble whatsoever with her family or the police. We just need to know she is safe and well."

He said police are trying to trace the two men Alex was last seen with.

Alex is 5ft 6in tall with dyed, medium brown hair. She was last seen wearing a white low-cut top, light blue jeans and black boots.

Anyone with any information should contact Sussex Police on 0845 6070999.