AFTER SIX YEARS OF MISSING IN MAINLAND EUROPE, A BRITISH TEENAGER RETURNS HOME

Sun 17 December 2023:

When he was eleven years old, Alex Batty went on vacation to Spain; nevertheless, he didn’t show up in France for another six years.

Alex Batty, a British teenager, returned to the UK six years after leaving for a planned two-week family vacation in Spain.

After that vacation, Batty never went back to his grandmother and guardian in Oldham, which is close to Manchester. Despite her desperate pleas, she was unable to locate him until this past week when he was discovered late at night strolling down a road in southern France.

Assistant Chief Constable Matt Boyle of Greater Manchester Police said Batty had arrived in England on a flight from Toulouse.

Alex Batty, who resurfaced in southern France after disappearing at the age of 11 during a holiday in Spain six years ago, has returned to Britain, local police said https://t.co/EfJQMvJGMf pic.twitter.com/8OEz3mykn9

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 17, 2023

He said police “are yet to fully establish the circumstances surrounding his disappearance” and whether there should be a criminal investigation.

Now 17, Alex told French officials he had been living a nomadic lifestyle in Spain, Morocco and France with his mother and grandfather as part of a “spiritual community.” He said the family moved from place to place, grew their own food, meditated and contemplated reincarnation and other esoteric subjects.

When his mother said she wanted to move the family to Finland, Alex decided to leave, French prosecutor Antoine Leroy told reporters on Friday.

Batty was spotted by a delivery driver walking alone in the rain and dark with a flashlight, a rucksack and his skateboard. The driver, Fabien Accidini, offered him a lift, and Alex told him about his life and how he had walked for four days, travelling by night, through the remote and rugged Pyrenees.

Accidini said the boy told him “that he had been kidnapped by his mother” years ago. He added “that he’d been in France for the past two years in a spiritual community that was a bit strange with his mother who is also a bit strange.”

“He’d had enough. He said, ‘I am 17. I need a future.’ He didn’t see a future for him there.”

Alex’s mother Melanie Batty is wanted by British police in connection with the boy’s disappearance. French officials say she may be in Finland.

Alex’s grandfather, David Batty, is believed to have died about six months ago.

Boyle, the British police officer, said detectives would be speaking to Alex “at a pace that feels comfortable to him.”

“No matter what, we understand that this may be an overwhelming process,” he said. “He may now be six years older than when he went missing, but he is still a young person.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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