Family of Scottish man missing in Portugal for a week 'in living hell' as search focuses on rough terrain

4 June 2025, 06:00 | Updated: 4 June 2025, 09:57

The family of a Scottish man who went missing in Portugal a week ago have told LBC they're 'living in hell' as the search for him focuses on "rough terrain".

38-year-old Greg Monk from Glasgow arrived in the resort town of Albufeira for a night out last Tuesday as part of a stag do with friends.

Members of the group reportedly say he told them in the early hours of Wednesday morning he was heading back to their accommodation.

He hasn't been seen in person since.

Greg's parents and girlfriend have since flown out to Portugal to try and help aid search efforts.

They've been liaising with his sisters back home including Jillian Monk who has been updating on LBC on what local police are telling the family.

She said: "They say he's been seen on CCTV in a residential area called Corre de Aguia. He's been seen on two different CCTVs quite close to each other there between 3 and 3:30. Just to give you an idea of what that area is like, it's quite dense. There's a lot of rocks, cliffs, trees. It's really quite rural. It's dark, there's no street lights. It's unimaginable to think he could be lost somewhere in that. It's just really difficult to deal with."

"The local police probably started to take it more seriously on Thursday and that's when they found the CCTV of him in this area. I think the fact that he's been up there has heightened their need to look into this quickly. They've been great and they're doing everything they can but just with a small resource. So we've been reaching out to the mayor there...and since that we've had correspondence that it will be moving up to a higher place.

"We've also had lots of people and volunteers reaching out, people that are ex military and people that are search and rescue trying to do their best and go round the area. We've had people out helping with drones too and I mean everyone is doing all they can but because the terrain is so rough they need specialists who can work their way through it. What some people are saying is they're getting so far but when it's coming up to like the area with the trees there is just no way of getting in that without removing or cutting down trees. So we just feel really stuck and lost."

The family have also helped local police to access Greg's Apple account but none of his devices were traceable.

They've also not been able to access his bank account yet to try and track him through his transactions, but they have been told he's not in any nearby hospitals.

Jillian's hoping to drive as much attention and resources as possible towards Greg's situation and told LBC she thinks the UK or Scottish Governments might be able to help.

Asked what her message would be to the First Minister or Prime Minister, she said: "Just please help us. Just please reach out to the Portuguese government to get any resource they can on this. Like, we just need help. This is not something we've ever dealt with. We don't know what we're doing. We're just trying to get them out there as much as we can. And we just need our government to help navigate that. Navigate that and speak to who they need, whoever that they need to speak to in the Portuguese government to bring it to their attention.

"My brother's a hard worker. He's worked since he's been 16, never been out a job, pays his taxes, works hard. I mean, he deserves to be fought for.

"He's a good person. He's an amazing uncle to our kids. He would never, ever do anything like this. He would never put his family and his girlfriend through this. I know if he could contact us, he would.

"My message to anyone who anyone does know something and hasn't come forward would be please, please, please come forward and let us know. We miss him so much. Our kids miss him so much. His girlfriend. We just need him home. We can't possibly go on living in this hell of not knowing where he could be or what could have happened to him."

A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said: "We are supporting the family of a British man reported missing in Portugal and are in contact with the local authorities".

We have asked the Scottish Government to comment.