THE family of a man at the centre of the search for Sheila Fox said they were amazed the garden of their former home was being dug up.

They expressed their surprise as police forensic experts started excavating the back garden plot of a house in Barton Road, Farnworth, hunting for the remains of the six-year-old who has been missing for 57 years.

The dramatic search came after detectives received new information that a man had been seen digging in the back garden of the house just after midnight on the day Sheila disappeared in August 1944.

The man is believed to be Richard Ryan, a convicted rapist, who died 12 years ago.

Ryan, who was living in the semi-detached house at that time with his mother Barbara and younger brother Tommy, was convicted of rape in 1950 and charged in 1965 with indecently assaulting a child. He was married and had a son, called Tommy.

Today a close relative of said: "I hope that they find Sheila Fox's body, but they won't find it in that garden."

Ryan's wife, Amelia, a former cotton spinner, is now 78 and lives alone in Little Hulton. She has health problems and although she refused to talk about the police dig last night she said of her husband: "He was a good man. He was always good to me and his family."

Sheila was last seen in August 1944 as she walked to her home in Macdonald Avenue, Farnworth, from St James' Primary School. Despite a huge police search, she was never found. No one was ever arrested or charged in connection with her disappearance.

Today the police team returned to start digging for a second day.

The house's current owner Barbara Livesey, who police have stressed is not connected in any way to the investigation, spent the day inside as the search continued.

A tent has now been put up in the back garden covering the excavations which have been completed so far.

Police chiefs expect the dig to last for up to four days.

Det Chief Insp Paul Buchanan said: "It is a slow, methodical, process. We have two forensic anthropologists going through the ground layer by layer.

"We took advice from experts about the best way of examining the area and technological methods such as ground penetration radar were discounted due to the size of the area involved and the age of the incident."