SHEILA Fox's sister and parents had to endure seeing the missing girl's picture appear on cinema screens as the hunt continued.

Weeks after the six-year-old girl had disappeared as she walked home from a day in the classroom at St James' Primary School, a trip to the movies was to prove traumatic for her brother and sisters.

Yesterday her last-surviving sister Rene told how she and her parents George and Miriam had watched as Sheila's smiling face had been projected on to a cinema screen during the interval.

Her sister Rene, 69, said: "Her photograph was sent all over the country. I remember that a picture of Sheila even appeared on the screen at the pictures when we were there.

"We were all left with an empty feeling. It was such a terrible time for us all."

The poignant moment came when Rene and her parents paid a rare trip to the Empire Cinema in Albert Road, Farnworth, prior to its closure.

Rene added: "Sheila's picture must have appeared for two or three months. It used to come on at the interval and when a film had ended."