FIFTY days after Jenna Baldwin's disappearance, her stepfather was arrested by police. Michael Baldwin, (pictured) 37, was arrested at 4.30pm yesterday at the family's new home in Pont-newynydd, Pontypool.

Today, he is being questioned at Newport Central police station while officers continue searching woodland near the house in Abersychan where Jenna was last seen. Police have now admitted they are probably looking for her body.

Jenna, 15, went missing from the family's then home in Ffrwd Road, Abersychan, on September 10. Since then there has been no direct word from her.

Police officers searched the family's new house in Lime Kiln Road last night, and took away Mr Baldwin's car for forensic tests.

Neighbours watched as police blocked the road for it to be removed. Jenna's mother Desiree, 36, was taken to a different address last night by family liaison officers.

Her husband's arrest came after numerous personal appeals by Mrs Baldwin for Jenna to get in touch.

When Jenna went missing, Mrs Baldwin told us: "We just want her to call and say she's OK - she's slept out with her friends before, but she's always called to say where she is." Mrs Baldwin also pledged to listen more to her daughter if she contacted her, and said there had been rows about issues surrounding her independence in the run-up to September 10.

Mrs Baldwin has put up posters throughout the area appealing for information about the Abersychan Comprehensive pupil's disappearance.

A police spokeswoman said: "Police officers from Pontypool have carried out various lines of inquiry and made extensive appeals.

"The arrest comes as a result of these inquiries and developments which have arisen out of the appeals."

Chief Inspector John Oliver said: "Clearly it is still not any easier for Desiree, we haven't located Jenna and the circumstances she now finds herself in must be very traumatic and distressing.

"We are grateful we are able to use our family liaison officers to support her in the best way we can."

He added: "We are conducting land searches in the area around Abersychan. "We do fear the worst and could be searching for a body."

On hearing the news of the arrest Jenna's grandmother Olive Brookfield said she was "shell shocked".

She said: "We just hoped that she had gone off and was coming back." Since Jenna disappeared, her mother has received a series of text messages purporting to be from, or on behalf of, her daughter, and a number of silent or whispered phone calls.

She told the Argus that she believed they could be from her daughter. But before the arrest yesterday, police said they were "uneasy about the motivation behind them".