Chatroom runaway safe

A teenager who went missing for five days after meeting with friends he had made on the internet, had a "near-miss", police said yesterday.

Detectives said Darren Freeman, 15, who disappeared from his college campus last Tuesday, had been with a 17-year-old youth and a 21-year-old man he had met via an internet chatroom.

He returned to his home in Redbrook, near Monmouth, South Wales, on Sunday after an appeal by foster mother Lynne Freeman.

Superintendent Jon Burley, of Gwent Police, who had led a team of 25 officers searching for Darren, said: "This we describe as a near-miss. It has been extremely fortunate that this has not had a terrible outcome.."

Mr Burley said it was believed Darren had given out telephone numbers and possibly his address online before arranging to meet his chatroom friends.

He said officers still had to establish what Darren had been doing while he was missing, but were not considering taking action against anyone.