British boy missing for six years escapes French spiritual community
A British boy who went missing in Spain six years ago has been found “alive and well” after escaping from a “spiritual community” in France.
Alex Batty, from Oldham, Lancashire, was 11 when he did not return from a family holiday near Marbella with his mother Melanie Batty, then 37, and his grandfather David Batty, 58, in 2017.
His grandmother and legal guardian, Susan Caruana, said in 2018 she believed Alex may have been taken to Morocco as part of his mother’s pursuit of an “alternative lifestyle”. She had taken him to a commune there on a previous trip.
Prosecutors said the teenager, now 17, had been found near Toulouse after escaping a rural community. The boy reportedly said he had not been trapped in the commune, but wanted to “set his own path”.
The boy had spent days hiking across the Pyrenees mountains, they said, before being picked up by a lorry driver who took him to a police station in Revel, near Toulouse.
He reportedly told the driver that “his mother kidnapped him”, MailOnline reported.
“Since then he had lived in Spain in a luxury house with around ten people for three years,” according to Fabien Accidini, a student from Toulouse who said he was delivering medicine when he spotted him walking through the rain at 2am on Wednesday.
Mr Accidini claimed that Alex said his mother was “a little crazy” but that he “had no animosity towards” her, and “really missed his loved ones”.
“The [boy’s] identity was confirmed by the family after a photographic comparison by police,” the Toulouse public prosecutor’s office said on Thursday.
Mr Accidini said: “He [Alex] didn’t have regrets [about leaving the community]... he just wanted to live a normal life, to see his grandmother again and to have a normal future, that’s the word that he used.”
Motorists had alerted police to “unusual behaviour” of the teenager as he walked by the roadside near the town of Villefranche-de-Lauragais, south-east of Toulouse, on Wednesday evening, according to French media reports.
“He is in good health, that is all we can say for the moment,” a spokesman for the gendarmerie told The Connexion.
“We have contacted the Greater Manchester Police who will manage communication with his family.”
Greater Manchester Police said inquiries were being made and safeguarding measures put in place. Prosecutors also confirmed the boy would be returning to England shortly.
Alex went on holiday in the Benahavis area of Spain with his mother and grandfather six years ago but did not return home as expected.
An appeal was made by police at the time for information on his disappearance, with Melanie and David Batty wanted in connection with his alleged abduction.
His grandmother said in 2018 that her daughter and ex-husband had previously taken the boy to a commune in Morocco in 2014 and believes a disagreement about his care could have been behind the disappearance.
“The reason I believe they have done this is because basically my lifestyle, my belief systems, are not what they agree with,” she said.
“They didn’t want him to go to school, they don’t believe in mainstream school. I love him so much,” she said at the time.
The boy’s mother and grandfather have not been located, and he will not reveal their whereabouts nor where he was living, according to the BBC.
A spokesman for GMP said: “This is a complex and long-running investigation, and we need to make further inquiries as well as putting appropriate safeguarding measures in place.”
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are supporting a British national in France and are in contact with local authorities.”
