Alex Batty should have been found five months ago - but police were on strike

21 December 2023 , 14:33

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Alex Batty was declared missing in 2017 at the age of 11 (Image: PA)

British teenager Alex Batty should have been found five months ago alongside his still-missing 'kidnapper' mother – but French police were on strike and apparently failed to act, it emerged today.

Teachers at Ecole 42 (School 42 ) said the missing teen and his mother Melanie Batty, 48, had visited the prestigious IT facility in Perpignan, in the South of France in July. They revealed that staff were impressed by his application online and said he passed his computer exam "with flying colours."

However, they realised some of his details were incorrect and when the 17-year-old finally revealed his identity, they went straight to the police - but claim their concerns were initially not acted on due to industrial action. Police eventually began investigating, according to staff, but there were no developments until Alex turned up this month. His mother remains on the run.

Alex Batty was taken by his mother and grandfather (Manchester Evening News)

The latest revelation comes after Alex returned home to his legal guardian in Oldham, Greater Manchester, six years after being abducted. His mum is said to have forced him to live in an itinerant "spiritual community" instead of returning to his legal guardian, who is his grandmother, Susan Caruana, 68. Today, it emerged that police apparently missed opportunities to bring the teen home to his grandmother sooner.

Marie Payré, the administrative manager of Ecole 42, described events in July when the boy who would turn out to be Alex had applied to the school. She said: "He gave his name as Zack Edwards. He told us by email that an airline had lost his identity papers." When Alex arrived in Perpignan, "we started to have a clue about what was going on," Ms Payré told the France Bleu radio station. This was when Alex said: "Zack Edwards is just a nickname, my real name is Alex Batty."

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The teen's last known address was La Bastide, France (The Daily Mirror)

Géro Vigney, the director of Ecole 42, then realised that his potential student was a wanted child, and his mother was on the run. Mr Vigney handed over all details to the police, including the address where Alex "was staying with the woman who accompanied him." He continued: "It didn't happen like in the movies,’ said Mr Vigney. ‘When I arrived at the police station, it was in the middle of a national police strike, so I was asked to come back at 3pm.

"I think everyone found themselves faced with a situation they were not supposed to be in, but it annoyed me a little because we are still talking about a minor who has been missing for six years!" A police chief finally took Mr Vigney’s statement by phone, with Mr Vigney saying: "I gave him all the information, even the address of the lodge where he was staying with the woman who had accompanied him. I was told that the investigation was underway and that we would be kept informed, but since July, we never heard any news."

Alex has since been reunited with his grandmother Susan in the UK (CHRIS NEILL)

The international police agency Interpol was involved in the increasingly complicated case since Alex went missing in 2017 during a holiday to Spain. He was with his mother at the time, as well as his paternal grandfather, David Batty, who would now be 64. There are claims that Mr Batty died six months ago, but even that theory has now been called into question. No record of Mr Batty’s death has been filed, and neighbours in the hamlet of La Bastide, near Carcassonne, where they once lived, said they saw him looking fit and well within the last two weeks.

Greater Manchester police flew to south west France to collect Alex – who turned himself into gendarmes last Wednesday after a delivery driver picked him up on the side of a rural road – but for diplomatic reasons could not assist the French in looking for Mr and Ms Batty. A French source said: "The British are now leading the investigation, and they of course will be interviewing Alex at length. His mother is crucial to the enquiry, and she needs to be found."

The search area in France alone is a huge swathe of Pyrenean countryside that is hugely popular with spiritual communities, sects, cults and hippies. It is understood that the community the Battys joined never stayed anywhere for more than two weeks before moving on, living off the land and whatever money they could pull together. Contacted about the latest development in the case, Jean-David Cavaillé, the Perpignan public prosecutor, said: ‘The police officers reported to the duty prosecutor's office, and the facts were reported to the Quillan gendarmerie.’ Quillan is close to where Alex was believed to be staying in France.

Monica Charsley