Britain’s Alex Batty was just 11 when he went missing in Spain – How he was tracked down after six years in France
A 17-year-old British boy who had been missing in Spain since 2017 has been found in France.
Alex Batty was found in the town of Revel on Wednesday morning.
The boy had been missing for six years, after he had gone on holiday with his mother and grandfather.
THE mother and grandfatherwho do not have parental custody of Alex, have not been located but remain wanted in relation to its disappearance.
“We confirm that he has been identified. He will now return to Britain.”the Toulouse prosecutor’s office told Agence France-Presse.
A police source, cited by the BBC, said the 17-year-old told authorities he had been in France for the past two years. He is in good health and noted that no one has mistreated him all this time. However, according to the daily mail, he refuses to tell the police where his mother is
Alex’s grandmother – and his legal guardian – Susan Caruana had stated in 2018 that she believed that the boy’s mother, Melanie Batti, and his grandfather, David Batti, had taken him to live in a spiritual community in Morocco. She added that the boy’s mother and grandfather were looking for an alternative lifestyle and did not want Alex to go to school. “They didn’t believe in mainstream school,” she told the British newspaper.
How it was located
As reported by the daily mail, the 17-year-old was spotted by a distributor, Fabien Accidini, who saw him walking along a road in the foothills of the Pyrenees, carrying a backpack and a skateboard. Then the delivery man offered to take him and during the 3 hour ride he told him his story.
The boy said he lived in a kind of wandering community. As he stated, he wasn’t forced into this lifestyle, however he found his mother a bit strange and decided he didn’t want to continue living that way and wanted to make his own way – so he decided to leave.
The boy asked the driver if he could borrow his phone and sent a Facebook message to his grandmother, saying she was fine and wanted to see her. However, he wasn’t sure if he had received the message. The boy is currently in the care of social services.
British police contacted the UK embassy in Paris. Manchester Police are in contact with French authorities. A police spokesman said that “this is a complex and long-term investigation and appropriate safeguards must be put in place”.
Source :Skai
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