Officers sent to bring Alex Batty home six years after boy vanished in Spain

16 December 2023 , 07:53

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Police officers will retrieve Alex from Toulouse, France, as early as this weekend (Image: PA)

Officers have been sent to France to bring back missing teen Alex Batty after he was discovered on an isolated road in southern France.

The 17-year-old was picked up by a driver delivering medicines to a pharmacy on Wednesday evening before divulging his real identity. Alex, originally from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was reported missing in 2017 aged 11 when his mum and grandfather took him on a scheduled holiday to Marbella, Spain.

Now Greater Manchester Police have revealed the latest development as they send out officers to bring him home. It's understood he'll be returning to his grandmother and legal guardian Susan Caruana, who said on Thursday she was "shocked" by the news but "very happy".

Alex will return home to grandmother Susan Caruana (PA)

Ms Caruana believes her ex-partner, David Batty, and daughter, Melanie Batty, had run away because they wanted Alex to have an "alternative lifestyle". Driver Fabien Accidini, who found Alex, told local press the teen had said he'd been kidnapped at the aged of 12 and had been walking around the mountains for four days when he was picked up.

He had spent his adolescence in a nomadic "spiritual community" and had spent time in Morocco and the Pyrenees but decided the lifestyle "had to stop" when his mother revealed plans to go to Finland, according to the French prosecutor in Toulouse. Melanie and David remain wanted by authorities.

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The Manchester Evening News reports that a small team of officers will now be sent to retrieve Alex from Toulouse. "A small team is flying out to bring him home," said a GMP spokesman.

The teen was found at 3am wandering a rural road near Quillan, France (PA)

Officers are then expected to speak to the teenager before considering next steps and ensuring his welfare. It is thought the earliest Alex will arrive back in Greater Manchester is Saturday afternoon.

French prosecutor Antoine Leroy told a press conference on Friday that Alex had spent two years in Morocco then went with his mother to live with a "spiritual community" in the Pyrenees before she decided to leave for Finland and he remained. Mr Leroy told how the family were living a nomadic lifestyle, frequently on the move.

Alex then spent four days and nights walking through the mountains and foraging for food before he was picked up on Wednesday evening by Mr Accidini. The student and part-time driver said he was carrying only a skateboard and a torch when he found him walking along the rural road in the dark.

He was found on this road near Quillian, France

Mr Leroy told the conference: “He explained that he was being searched for and that he wanted protection.” Commenting on how Alex Batty had been living over the six years he was missing, Leroy told reporters: “He doesn’t describe any kind of physical violence, without talking about emotional violence.

“We can’t use the term ‘sect’ as such but he talks of a spiritual community.” Speaking about Alex’s condition when he was checked over by officials, Mr Leroy said: “This young man was described by the police who have seen him and by the doctors who examined him as ‘tired’ but overall in good health. He’s said to be intelligent even though he’s never been to school in this entire period.”

John Scheerhout