AN OXFORD councillor is pleading for help to find her brother after he went missing from Littlemore hospital.

Sushila Dhall, a Green Party city councillor for Carfax ward, has placed an advert in The Big Issue magazine asking for people to get in touch with her if they think they have seen 47-year-old Prem Dhall, who has severe schizophrenia.

Ms Dhall decided to make the appeal after a possible sighting of her brother in London, which turned out to be a false lead.

She said: “I would appeal to anyone who knows anything and who may not have come forward to do so.

“I don’t have any interest in him being locked up again.

“I just want to know he’s alive and okay.”

Mr Dhall went missing on July 17. He had been recently moved from a secure unit to a house at Littlemore Mental Health Centre and had, according to his sister, been doing “very, very well”.

Mr Dhall was being treated while subject to a Home Office section order, and a Ministry of Justice warrant has been issued for him to be returned to the hospital.

He is described as very thin, has large brown eyes with prominent eyelashes, and thick, dark brown hair.

He is half-Indian and about 5ft 9in tall, and speaks with a slight Scottish accent.

Ms Dhall does not have a picture of him.

Ms Dhall said: “If Prem reads this, I would like to say first of all that I want him to know that I love him, and that I just want to know he’s alive and well and if he needs anything, that I can get it for him.”

She said her brother had gone missing before but had always reappeared two or three weeks later, usually having done something “self-destructive”.

She added: “My best hope is that he has been taken in by some community outside the system and is somehow managing.

“My worst fear is that he has actually managed to kill himself, which he has tried to do before.”

If you think you have seen Prem Dhall or have information about him, please call Ms Dhall on 01865 790783.