A NORTH-EAST family are praying for an aid volunteer who may be facing police questions in Romania.

Nothing has been heard of 52-year-old Rod Jones for nine days, since he left the Teesside base of Convoy Aid, the charity he founded, to take essential supplies to the country.

Mr Jones set off for Romania, despite receiving a telephone tip-off that he risked arrest on his arrival.

He was warned that Romanian police wanted to speak to him about the removal from a rundown orphanage nine years ago of a baby girl, Anna-Maria.

Aware that all the other babies in Anna-Maria's ward had Aids and were being inoculated with the same syringe, Mr Jones took the healthy youngster and put her into the care of a Romanian couple whose baby daughter had died from Aids in the very next cot.

Since then, he has paid for Anna-Maria's keep, her clothing and schooling, but recently, the little girl was forcibly removed from her foster parents and put into an orphanage.

Mr Jones said despite the tip-off he could not let Anna Maria be put into an orphanage to face a future on the streets.

He was also told he would be asked questions about bringing a baby boy, Bogdan, back to Teesside nine years ago - an act that saved the child's life.

The 18-month-old had water on the brain and only an operation by neurosurgeon Fred Nath saved his life.

He has been legally adopted by Teesside couple Malcolm and Joan Vallin, with the blessing of his parents, the British Home Office and Romanian authorities.

Mrs Vallin said: "Rod has been wonderful. He is all heart as far as children are concerned. Whatever he has done - if he has done anything - has been for the best interests of the children.''