Photo Copyright - Montrose Coastguard 2008

The Montrose lifeboat was launched yesterday, and coastguard teams searched for the missing man from daybreak. The lifeboat searched an area from Scurdie Ness lighthouse south towards Usan, while coastguard teams scoured an area of the Montrose Basin foreshore. The inshore lifeboat searched the Basin estuary.

A search involving police, coastguards and an RAF helicopter was launched after Mr Gibb was reported missing from his home in Blackfriars Street at around 4.20pm on Tuesday. Police called in support to help find Mr Gibb after early checks in the town failed to locate him.

Mr Gibb suffers from depression, and his mother, Christina Gibb (76), said it had been a shock when he stepped outside alone on Tuesday, as it had been the first time in 30 years he had done so. His mother said he had become a prisoner in his own home since being kicked in the head when he was a teenager. A former pupil of Ferryden Primary and Montrose Academy, he worked for a short spell in McIver’s furniture store in the town, but had been unemployed since his injury.

“He was very active, very sporting and very much into his football,” said Mrs Gibb. However, he become more or less confined to the house over the years. “I could hardly believe it when he stepped out into the back garden.” she said. “I called to him to come in before he got cold and then he just disappeared.”

Mr Gibb’s sister Sandra and her son Dale (12) went out searching for him until midnight.She said, “I would just love to see him walk back in through the door. “All we can do now is wait and keep on hoping.”

Coastguard teams from Arbroath and Montrose joined in the effort to find Mr Gibb.On Tuesday night they scoured the shoreline around the harbour channel and basin, firing parachute flares to light the area. A Sea King helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth was brought in and used its heat-seeking equipment in a vain bid to pinpoint Mr Gibb. The aircraft hovered over the town until after midnight on a search pattern that included the seafront, harbour, basin and surrounding area. Its navigation lights could be seen for miles around as it slowly flew inland, sweeping the farmland bordering the basin. Late into the night the helicopter, which arrived at Montrose after having been involved in a search of hills on the west coast, was heard flying above the beachfront, and moving between St Cyrus and Ferryden.

Mr Gibb is around 5ft 8in tall, with a slim build, blue eyes and brown hair.

At the time of his disappearance he was wearing a brown crew neck jumper, blue jeans and blue slippers.

Anyone with information should contact the police in Forfar on 01307 302200.

By Liz Fowler and Chris Hardy. © All copyright D C Thomson & Co Ltd., 2008 The Courier