The Met is offering £20,000 for information that finds Alex Sloley, missing from his Islington home since 8 August 2008, aged 16. Anyone exploited by north London gangs then is asked to call.

The Metropolitan Police is offering a £20,000 reward for information that leads to Alex Sloley, who was 16 when his family reported him missing from his home in Islington on 8 August 2008 and who has not been found in the 18 years since. (Metropolitan Police, 13 August 2026)

The appeal, published on 13 August, is aimed squarely at one group of people: anyone who was themselves drawn into gangs in north London around 2008. Detective Chief Inspector Sarb Kaur, who leads the investigation, said the Met is aware that when Alex went missing he “was a victim of exploitation and was being coerced into criminality by gangs in the area”, and that people who were exploited alongside him may hold the piece of information the inquiry has lacked. “You will not be in trouble,” she said, “but you may hold key information which could help us piece the jigsaw together.”

What the Met has said

The force’s statement sets out the record as it stands:

  • Alex’s family reported on 8 August 2008 that they had not seen or heard from him. An investigation began with officers reviewing CCTV from the area and taking statements from his family and friends.
  • At the time he was around 5ft 5ins, of medium build, with what the Met describes as striking blue eyes. He would now be 34, and the force is circulating both his 2008 photograph and an image of how he may look today.
  • Repeated public appeals over the years brought in multiple reported sightings. DCI Kaur said officers have “reviewed hundreds of reports from people who believe they’ve seen Alex in London”, but none has produced what is needed to find him.
  • The case has been reviewed regularly to identify new leads, and the Met says it remains an active investigation that it believes “can be solved”.

The reward is the new element. “Over time allegiances can change,” DCI Kaur said, “and we hope that the offer of this substantial reward could help someone with information to come forward.”

Timeline: 8 August 2008 Alex Sloley, 16, reported missing from Islington; hundreds of reported sightings reviewed over the years; 13 August 2026 the Met offers a £20,000 reward, Alex would now be 34
Eighteen years between the missing report and the reward. Graphic by Islington Today, from the Metropolitan Police statement of 13 August 2026.

What it means for you

The Met is not asking the general public to remember a face from 2008. It is asking a specific group of people, now in their thirties, who were around north London gangs at that time, to think again about what they saw or heard, and it has said explicitly that coming forward will not get them into trouble. If that describes you or someone you know, the routes are:

  • The investigation team directly, by phone or text, on 07860 369 603.
  • 101, or online through the Met’s website.
  • Anonymously through the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Nothing in the Met’s statement suggests any current risk to residents; this is a long-running missing person inquiry, not an incident. Anyone with information about a more recent matter, including the Tollington Park burglary appeal we reported last week, should use the reference numbers given in that appeal rather than this one.

We will update this page if the Met publishes anything further.