For the parents of Sarah Shields the wait to discover what happened to their daughter in the moments before her death goes on.

Angela and David Shields, of Ramsgate Drive, Ipswich are “desperate” to see justice done after their 23-year-old daughter was found dead on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria in July last year.

When Sarah failed to return from holiday with her 36-year-old boyfriend Christopher Chittock on July 11 last year her family became concerned and filed a missing persons report.

Chittock returned to the couple’s home in Alnesbourn Crescent in Ravenswoood alone, claiming his girlfriend had left him, choosing to stay on the Spanish island.

But her body was pulled from the seas off the southern coast of the island just days later.

Chittock was arrested on July 13 last year and is currently in custody in a Spanish prison, facing a murder trial after he was extradited last September.

Facing their second Christmas without Sarah, Mrs Shields said they face an agonising wait to hear when the trial will take place.

“I want to get the trial over with,” she said. “I need closure, I want to see justice done.

“It is the not knowing that is so hard, if it was happening here, we would have a date. Even if it wasn’t until next year, at least we would know.

“We just want to know what happened, we need to know what she went through, our little girl, we miss her so much.”

“We are in limbo, we just can’t get on with our lives,” Mrs Shields added. “We talk about her every day, she is always in our thoughts.

“The trial won’t bring her back but it will give us a chance to concentrate on our fun, happy memories of Sarah. Christmas is a hard time, Sarah loved Christmas, we just can’t celebrate and get in the spirit with this hanging over us.”