Truant schoolboy to fly home

A 16-year-old public schoolboy who skipped lessons and secretly flew to the Caribbean has telephoned home to tell his parents he is safe and well.

Interpol had been alerted over GCSE student Fenn Chapman, who disappeared from Rugby School in Warwickshire on Tuesday and set off for Barbados. The teenager, who was at first thought to have been suffering from examination stress, had not been seen since arriving on the island. Police say the boy, who had visited Barbados on a recent family holiday, had contacted his parents and was planning to return home.

His parents, Christine and Ernest Chapman, who live near Ilkley, North Yorkshire, refused to comment.