A former neighbour of a missing four-year-old boy’s family has urged for distressing “online vitriol” directed at them to stop.

August “Gus” Lamont remains missing after last being seen outside his family’s Oak Park Station homestead, about 40km south of Yunta in South Australia, on September 27.

A major operation that was launched to try and locate the four-year-old has since been scaled back after the remote outback property was combed by search teams.

Alex Thomas, a childhood friend of Gus’s family, has told The Advertiser that the family has been subject to “online vitriol” amid the young boy's disappearance.

Ms Thomas, who had grown up at Parnaroo Station nearby the Lamonts, asked people for their “compassion and understanding” during a difficult time for the family.

“I really wa

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