London church launches petition to encourage Canadian authorities to find Timothy Chu, who was set to start training contract this September
A BPP Law School student — who was set to start a Whitehall training contract — has gone missing while on a diving holiday at an island off the coast of western Canada.
Timothy Chu was on schedule to finish his Legal Practice Course this autumn before starting a training contract with HM Revenue & Customs. But he was reported by local media last week to be missing in the sea around Race Rocks, an ecological reserve off the southeast tip of Vancouver Island.
According to Victoria newspaper, the Times Colonist, the 27-year-old former soldier became separated from his dive master on 5 July, triggering an air and water search organised by the Victoria Rescue Co-ordination Centre.
The law student’s church — the King’s Cross Methodist in London — has started an online petition calling on the Canadian authorities to continue the search, which has been officially suspended.
The newspaper reported that Chu was an experienced diver, having been involved in the activity since he was a teenager. His Hong Kong-based brother, Joshua, issued a statement saying:
His family pleads with Canadian and U.S. authorities, as well as the British consulate, to continue the search.
The King Cross Methodist Church quoted Joshua Chu as describing his law student brother as being “skilled in survival and no stranger to challenge”. According to the petition site, Chu was named the army’s soldier of the year in 2011.
A spokeswoman for New Scotland Yard said the Met was liaising with the Foreign Office and the Canadian authorities in relation to Chu.
BPP tweeted yesterday, saying:
We are so sorry to hear this.Our thoughts are with you, we hope he returns home safely. BPP University https://t.co/KMtsQzDAPO
— BPP Law School (@BPPLawSchool) July 14, 2015
Last year, Chu completed the Graduate Diploma in Law also at BPP, having graduated from the London School of Economics with a degree in international relations.
He did a vacation scheme with the Government Legal Service in the summer of 2013.