Entries in the diary of a teacher who has been missing for almost three months are being examined to make sure they were actually written by her, The Times has learned.

The last notes allegedly made by Sarah Flooks, 50, in the weeks before she disappeared, in which she questions whether she can go on, are shaky and messy and not consistent with her usual precise handwriting, says John Mouzouros, her partner of thirty years.

The diary, which goes back as far as 2000, has been handed over by detectives to a handwriting expert to examine.

A Metropolitan police spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that the diary is being looked at by a specialist to assist in tracing the whereabouts of Sarah Flooks. It is being done to ascertain that the diary is hers."

Mr Mouzouros said Ms Flooks had written that she was suffering chest pains, which he took to be signs of stress, and that she doubted she had the strength to go on for another year at work.

He believes that she was extremely worried by an Ofsted inspection at Monega Primary school, due on the day she disappeared on March 2, although the headmaster said it would be "difficult to feel she would be stressed out by any inspection".

The former photographer for EMI said that he found the book in his partner's desk drawer and claims that the police failed to find it despite two detailed searches of his Victorian home in Wanstead, east London.

Mr Mouzouros said he has no idea why police would need to verify it was her diary. "What makes them believe it is not hers, they have fevered imaginations. If I was Sherlock Holmes I would say the poor girl has flipped, but it's up to them.

"What on earth is in their minds, who do they think has written it? Me? Why would I do that? The implication is that I have hidden it and then rung them up to say I have got it."

After Ms Flooks went missing a huge police hunt was launched involving helicopters, divers and search teams scouring the area around their home including lakes, a large cemetery and areas of Epping Forest.

Ms Flooks, 50, liked to walk the 20 minutes to school, but on March 2 was expected to drive as the inspection meant that she had too much to carry. When Mr Mouzouros got a call from the school saying that she had not turned up, he followed her route, concerned that she might have had an accident. Then he called police.

Mr Mouzouros said that the diary was not a detailed account of her life, just "whinges" about things.

"The last few entries show a troubled state of mind, there is no doubt about that."

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