A toddler and his mother who vanished while embroiled in family court proceedings have been found safe and well, a judge has said.

Mr Justice Keehan had raised the alarm in July at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

He had appealed for help finding Eunice Kyerah and her son Joeking, who will celebrate his second birthday in February, and said evidence suggested that the youngster had been 'spirited away' amid fears that he would be taken into council care.

Now the judge says Joeking and his mother have been found safe and well.

Mrs Kyerah, who is originally from Ghana, had links to the West Midlands, South Wales and Norfolk, the judge had been told.

Social services bosses at Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council in Oldbury, West Midlands, had welfare responsibilities for Joeking and had begun family court litigation.

Joeking's case was being analysed at private family court hearings.

Mr Justice Keehan had lifted restrictions preventing Joeking being identified in media reports of the case in the hope that publicity would help find him.

The judge says he will now make deciions about the little's boy's future after analysing evidence at further private family court hearings and he has re-imposed reporting restrictions.`