Several newspapers published online articles on 14 November claiming that Greater Manchester Police were searching for a boy and a ‘suspicious male’ after a member of the public reported that the child had been heard telling the man “you’re not my dad”. The stories were published along with an image of the man and boy walking together.
While it is true that police did put out a call for help in locating the man on 14 November, they confirmed several hours later that the boy is safe and well with his father and described the report as a “false call made with good intent”.
Full Fact contacted several media organisations before 11am on 15 November to alert them to the police update, after the original stories and accompanying image remained online.
The Mail Online ran a version of this article, but deleted the story and removed it from social media after we got in touch. The Sun had also published a version of the story, which it updated several hours after we contacted it. However, the Sun’s original share of the article on Facebook had not been taken down as of 5pm on 15 November and was continuing to receive comments, while the new version of the story does not appear to have been posted to the social media platform.
As of 5pm on 15 November, The Mirror has failed to update or delete its article. Full Fact has contacted the paper to ask it to update or remove the article, and will update this story if we receive a response.