Concern was growing last night for a 16-year-old boy who was persuaded to leave home within hours of meeting members of a religious cult. Bobby Kelly's photograph has been circulated to police, and airports and docks were being watched, amid fears that he could be taken out of the country.
The schoolboy met members of the Jesus Christians, a little known cult founded by an Australian, as they handed out leaflets in a shopping centre in Romford, Essex, two weeks ago.
The same afternoon he packed some belongings and told his family he was "going with them". On Thursday his grandmother, Ruth Kelly, with whom he lived, asked the high court to help bring him home.
He was made a ward of court and the official solicitor, Lawrence Oates, issued a statement spelling out the circumstances of his disappearance.
Mrs Kelly said that Bobby was planning to do a business studies course at college after completing his GCSEs.
She has spoken to Bobby on the telephone and describes him as sounding "very strange". She and a church youth worker, David Whitehouse, have also seen him face to face - but only in the presence of cult members. Mr Whitehouse said the Jesus Christians group members told him the teenager would be going to Germany on a missionary trip within a fortnight.
He said: "Bobby seemed scared, as if he was very wary about what the group members would think about what he was saying. I asked where they lived and they said they moved around. They said they had slept in a forest the previous few nights.
"He has been with them for just over a fortnight. They have let him see me and his grandmother but never unsupervised. They said that was out of the question.
"He is a young Christian man with a strong interest in the Bible and that is what this group will have used to get close to him. These people have a veneer of respectability. They come across as if they are keen to follow Jesus but their actions tell a different story."
The Jesus Christians were formed by an Australian, David McKay, and are difficult to track down.
Their literature calls on converts to forsake their jobs, boss, even their family and friends.
"God is now your boss and he has a new job for you that will not wait," says a cult leaflet.
