‘It’s a very lonely world’: The Brits who go missing abroad

Published

11 months ago

August 31, 2024

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“His room is still the same” and “there’s always a missing chair around the table”, says Pip, whose younger brother Sanjiv Kundi was 41 when he vanished in Paris 11 years ago.

She has visited the French capital many times since he left the family home in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, for a week’s holiday – always wondering if she will see his face in the crowd.

Sanjiv was the “apple of my parents’ eye”, she says, their only son surrounded by four sisters, but he struggled with his mental health in the years before his disappearance.

Distinctive looking, standing at around 6ft 2inch inches tall with dark, greying curly hair and a beard, Sanjiv was wearing glasses, a heavy brown, three-quarter length coat and brown cargo trousers when he took the 4.22pm Eurostar from St Pancras.

He arrived at Gare du Nord station on the evening of 25 September 2013 but what happened next remains a mystery.

He is believed to have returned to the station the following day to buy a ticket home for 1 October but there’s no available CCTV footage, and his cards and mobile phone have not been used since he went missing.

The impact on Sanjiv’s family has been devastating, his parents now in their 80s, his nephews all grown up, are still no closer to getting any answers.

Pip wonders if he’s been a victim of crime, if something sinister has happened to him, or if he’s decided to live that way.

‘Somebody somewhere knows something’

If he has, she wants him to know he’s “deeply missed” and his family just want to know he’s safe – but she does not think he intentionally wanted to go missing.

“In this day and age, with all the technology we have, I can’t understand why nobody saw my brother that day,” says Pip.

“Somebody somewhere knows something.”

Her family is one of the many living with the nightmare of searching for a loved one who has gone missing abroad.

The LBT Global charity, which helped Jay Slater’s relatives after he disappeared while on holiday in Tenerife, says it gets about 3,000 enquiries a year and takes on about 300 to 400 of those cases.

But only a fraction get the same type of publicity as the 19-year-old, whose body was found in a ravine 29 days after he went missing, or television doctor Michael Mosley, 67, who was found dead four days after he disappeared on the Greek island of Symi.

Middle-aged men and those with mental health issues tend not to generate the same headlines as the young, photogenic or famous, says Matt Searle, LBT Global’s chief executive.

But the “extraordinary” case of Madeleine McCann, who was aged three when she disappeared from her holiday apartment in Portugal on 3 May 2007, set a “very public benchmark” for what people expect.

‘A missing foreigner is bottom of the pile’

Police in the UK have a duty to take statements and pass the information through Interpol to the relevant foreign police force, but they do not have any jurisdiction to carry out an investigation.

There are currently 69 Interpol yellow notices – the global police alerts issued to help locate people, including cases of suspected kidnappings and abductions – for British people, including Madeleine.

Most families will not get much support from the authorities and in some countries, “a missing foreigner is absolutely bottom of the pile”, says Matt, while those who go out to search themselves may not even be able to read the road signs.

“It’s a very lonely world for people who’ve got someone missing overseas,” he says.

“A huge part of every operation is explaining why the British police, the prime minister, the foreign secretary, aren’t all flying out there,” he says.

“It just doesn’t happen. You have to explain that the British government can’t do that. The Met Police aren’t going to be flying out in helicopters, going to look for them, you know, we’re not going to get any of that.

“But what we do is say, depending on what the case needs, we could try and find a local guy with a drone, mobilise local search and rescue, or fundraise to get on-the-ground support.”

‘We’ve been to the morgues’

Pip’s family has had virtually no contact with the French police and a year after Sanjiv went missing his file was shoved in a drawer, she says, so they were left to drive the search themselves.

She went to areas in Paris that were popular with rough sleepers, handed out leaflets and posters and appeared on French radio and TV.

“We’ve been to the morgues. We’ve been to the hospital,” she says. “And you can’t believe you still can’t find a scrap of anything to tell us what happened when he left that station.”

Pip has been assisted by the Missing People charity. It says 170,000 people a year, or one every 90 seconds, are reported missing in the UK, but lists the details of just 38 people missing abroad.

They include the high-profile cases of Madeleine McCann and Ben Needham, who was 21 months old when he disappeared on the Greek island of Kos in 1991.

While Sanjiv has attracted some publicity over the years, the coverage of the famous cases sometimes makes Pip think: “Why not my brother?”

Around 80% of cases resolved

LBT Global, which specialises in helping families whose relatives are missing abroad, has around 860 open cases, some going back 20 years.

The charity is able to tell around 80% of the people it works with what happened. Around half of those are happy endings, says Matt.

Alex Batty went missing aged 11 in 2017 after his mother Melanie Batty, who was not his legal guardian, took him on a pre-arranged trip to Spain with his grandfather.

They lived “off-grid” leading a nomadic lifestyle in southern France for six years until Alex made the decision to walk out and was found walking in darkness carrying his skateboard by a French delivery driver near Toulouse.

He was reunited with his grandmother and legal guardian Susan Caruana at his former home in Oldham, Greater Manchester, just before Christmas last year.

In other cases, a missing person is found in prison overseas or dead.

“Even being able to tell them that someone has died can be a relief for them, because at least they can move on with a grieving journey then, and we can make arrangements to repatriate the body, and they can have a burial,” says Matt.

“And it’s surprising how often a family will say, ‘I wish I knew they were dead rather than just not knowing at all’.”

Harder still, he says, is telling a family they are alive and well but they do not want to speak to them ever again. The reasons for this can vary but typically include a family breakdown, criminal activity within a family or they just want to leave their old life behind.

‘Never lose hope’

In those cases, Matt has to tell the family: “I’m sorry, but we can’t search for them anymore. They told me they don’t want to be found and they don’t want to be in touch.”

But living in long-term limbo like Pip’s family is also incredibly hard.

They have gone through all the stages of bereavement, from shock to denial, to depression and anger at “why isn’t anybody looking for him?”

And when a new high-profile missing person’s case like Jay Slater hits the headlines it “brings it all back”.

“Every person out there whose family member is missing could almost feel and touch the emotion that [family] was going through,” says Pip.

LBT Global’s oldest cases date back to 2004 or 2005 but Matt says his charity has located people who have been missing for more than 20 years.

“The message to families is never lose hope,” he says.

Missing People runs a free and confidential helpline for those affected by a disappearance. You can text or call them on 116 000 or send an email to 11600@missingpeople.org.uk.

UK

Babies born with DNA from three people in the UK – to prevent ‘devastating’ illness with no cure

Published

1 hour ago

July 17, 2025

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Babies born with DNA from three people in the UK - to prevent 'devastating' illness with no cure

Eight babies have been born in the UK with DNA from three people following a procedure to eliminate an incurable inherited disease.

It is a major advance for the technique, called mitochondrial donation therapy, designed to prevent a life-limiting, often fatal illness caused by genetic mutations in the structures that generate energy in all our cells.

It is also a test of the UK’s permissive but highly regulated stance on human embryo research that allowed a technique once criticised for creating “three-parent babies” to proceed.

The babies, four girls and four boys – two of them identical twins – were all born in the last five years and are healthy, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“It’s a great success for these families,” said Sir Doug Turnbull, emeritus professor at the University of Newcastle who helped pioneer the treatment.

“This is a devastating disease with no cure and without this technique, they would not feel that their families were free of mitochondrial disease. This gives them that opportunity.”

Mitochondrial disease affects around one in 5,000 babies born in the UK.

Depending on the number and type of mutations in their mitochondria, the severity and type of disease can vary, but includes neurological, metabolic and developmental disorders.

Only women at high risk of passing on severe disease qualify for the procedure, provided though a specialist facility at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The identities of the seven families and their babies are being withheld, but a mother of one of the baby boys speaking anonymously said: “The emotional burden of mitochondrial disease has been lifted, and in its place is hope, joy, and deep gratitude.”

How does the technique work?

The procedure involves removing the genetic information from an affected mother’s fertilised embryo before inserting it into one from a healthy female donor, from which the genetic information has been removed.

Crucially, the hundreds of thousands of diseased mitochondria are left behind, leaving the new embryo with healthy ones present in the donor embryo.

Mitochondria contain a tiny amount of their own unique genetic code, so the resulting babies carry DNA from three different people.

But because it represents just 0.02% of our total DNA and has no bearing on genetic traits we inherit from our parents, researchers behind the technique, have never liked the “three-parent” moniker.

However, the technique – whatever you choose to call it – isn’t perfect.

A total of 22 women underwent the procedure but only seven became pregnant, resulting in eight births – a 36% success rate.

Five of the eight babies were born with no trace of disease.

But tests on the other three revealed a small percentage of mutated mitochondria had been carried over during the procedure.

While they are at levels too low to cause mitochondrial disease, the babies will require careful follow-ups to ensure they continue to develop normally.

“We have designed a study specifically for that purpose,” said Professor Bobby McFarland, who leads the service in Newcastle.

“That’s what is unique about us offering this in Newcastle because there isn’t anywhere else in the world that’s doing this in a regulated way.”

While there’s good reason to expect the children will develop normally, the procedure does take medicine into new territory.

Because mitochondria contain their own genetic code, girls born via the technique – carrying those from the healthy donor – will pass that on to any children they may have in future.

Changing the “germ-line” in such a way has raised ethical concerns.

But for seven new families, and more to follow, the procedure promises to cure a disease that has affected their families for generations.

UK

Acid attacks rise in UK – with 25% of them in an area that’s home to just 2% of the population

Published

1 hour ago

July 17, 2025

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Acid attacks rise in UK - with 25% of them in an area that's home to just 2% of the population

The number of acid attacks has risen 10% in a year, according to a Freedom of Information request to UK police forces.

Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI) said its analysis shows 498 physical attacks involving corrosive substances were recorded in 2024 – compared with 454 in the previous year.

According to the charity, the real figure is likely to be even higher because of under-reporting by victims.

In 2023, both Northumbria Police and the Metropolitan Police recorded the highest number of physical attacks – 18% and 16% respectively.

But figures in 2024 showed a significant fall in attacks in London, dropping by 78%, while cases in Northumbria rose substantially.

ASTI executive director Jaf Shah told Sky News that attacks in Northumbria account for almost 25% of the nationwide total – despite making up just 2% of the population.

He explained: “Historically, London has always seen the highest number attacks, which is unsurprising because of the population. But what we’ve seen in the 2024 data is a massive drop in the number of attacks in London to just 16.

“Whereas in Northumbria we’ve seen a 49% increase to 121 attacks, so there’s a massive disparity in terms of numbers, especially relative to population figures for each of those corresponding areas. So this is obviously a very worrying trend.”

Mr Shah added there was supporting evidence about the type of attacks taking place in the Northumbria force area.

“Professor Francisco Figueiredo, who is head of ophthalmology at Newcastle University … certainly picked up on an increase of young men receiving treatment with corrosive injuries in the eye.

“A lot of the injuries he’s treated are related to the use of ammonia … that’s quite different to some of the attacks we’ve seen in other parts of the UK where sulphuric acid is commonly used.”

West Midlands Police also recorded a significant increase in attacks – rising 82% between 2023 and 2024 – and making up 12% of the UK total.

ASTI states the FOI data reveals acid attacks in the UK are historically associated with male-on-male violence and often linked to gang activity.

Of the 224 physical attacks where gender data was recorded, a third of victims were female, reflecting the increasing use of acid as a weapon of violence against women and girls.

ASTI also commissioned research, conducted by Frontier Economics, which concluded that the financial impact of all acid attacks in 2024 was more than £31m.

The study estimated that a single attack costs £63,000, consisting of the medical and psychological support victims require and paying for the criminal justice system to deal with perpetrators.

ASTI also told Sky News it was recommending reforms to tackle the “lack of robust checks on sales of corrosives”, especially via online retailers.

Acid attack ‘devastates lives’

Commander Stephen Clayman, National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for corrosive substances, said an attack “devastates lives and causes physical and psychological damage to victims that can last a lifetime” and officers were committed “to tackle this appalling crime”.

In a statement, he added: “Many corrosive substances are available over the counter at supermarkets and DIY stores.

“It is important that law enforcement and government work closely with retailers themselves, to enhance our intelligence picture, and determine the best ways to keep these products from falling into the hands of people who intend to use them to cause harm.

“Serious crimes such as this should not go unreported and we want victims to feel able to come forward and report these matters to us.”

UK

Red House: 62 people now say they experienced abuse at children’s home run by a ‘cult’

Published

3 hours ago

July 17, 2025

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Red House: 62 people now say they experienced abuse at children's home run by a 'cult'

“It was like hell on Earth.”

Warning: This article includes references to sexual abuse and suicide that some readers may find distressing.

Colin (not his real name) is one of 19 alleged abuse victims who has come forward following a Sky News investigation into a closed children’s home in Norfolk.

The total number is now 62.

Numerous people have told us that they experienced physical, emotional and sexual abuse at The Small School at Red House run by a Danish organisation called Tvind, which has been described as a cult.

Colin was taken into care after being a victim of sexual exploitation, but when he arrived at The Red House at 15, his personal, painful history was used against him.

“A couple of the lads grabbed hold of me,” he said. “They’d been told that I was a rent boy before I got there, they wanted to knock me into shape. I contemplated killing myself. I’d never experienced that humiliation.”

Children were sent to The Red House from all over the country. Some have told Sky News that violent staff broke their fingers, threw them down the stairs and even locked them in rooms with Alsatians.

Sadly for Colin, his experience of sexual exploitation continued at the home.

“They put these three lads in my room, they squeezed me round my neck and I passed out,” he said. “When I came round they were sexually abusing me. I was screaming and screaming. The next day I ran and I never went back there.”

The home was run by the Tvind School Cooperative of Denmark. A controversial group founded in the late 1960s, they opened around 30 radical schools in Denmark, mostly for disadvantaged children, and two in England. Many have since closed.

Inspections by regulatory bodies reveal growing concerns about The Red House. In 1990, the Social Services Inspectorate wrote to directors of local authorities warning them against sending children to the home.

An inspection report made by Norfolk County Council in 1994 shows they were aware of alleged “sexual abuse” and “physical abuse” involving 20 children.

Yet the home continued to operate and three years after that inspection report, Norfolk County Council sent a teenage boy to the Red House.

“Red House was this black hole where they could just dump people and not worry about them,” he says.

“Whilst I was there I can’t even think of one instance when my social worker turned up to come and check on me.”

He is one of the many alleged victims in the process of suing Norfolk County Council and the local authorities which sent children to the home.

Daniel Lemberger Cooper is representing victims on behalf of Imran Khan and Partners.

“[We] urge Norfolk Council, who are the centre of this and whose geographic area Red House was based, to tell the truth. They were aware very early on … about abuse and allegations of abuse and they failed to act.”

Victims are also being supported by the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association who are urging any more people to come forward.

The home was shut down in 1998. Norfolk Police have done two investigations into allegations of abuse but no one has been charged.

Those still working for Tvind in Denmark say they are not associated with the former cooperative.

Norfolk County Council says: “We continue to investigate and respond to those private claims through the appropriate legal channels.

“Our thoughts are with all survivors of abuse but, as there is an ongoing legal claim relating to Red House, we cannot comment further at this time.”

People can contact the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association by visiting: www.smallschoolredhouse.co.uk.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.