London, Thanasis Gavos

Alex Batty, 17 years old today, was found in France in the early hours of Wednesday, the young British man who had been “kidnapped” by his mother and grandfather in 2017, when he was 11 years old and they had gone on holiday together in Spain.

Since then, his traces were unknown.

Alex, from Oldham, had traveled in October 2017 aged 11 to Malaga with his mother, who, however, does not have legal custody of the child and his 59-year-old grandfather David Baty.

They were due to spend a week’s holiday near Marbella, however they did not return to England.

Despite the her public appeals grandmother of, Susan Caruanawhere is legal guardian Alex’s there was no response. She herself had said how the 2014 her daughter and ex-husband had briefly lived with her grandson in a commune in Moroccoin the context of “alternative lifestyle”.

Ms Caruana, who has remarried after divorcing David Baty, said that after years of not knowing if her grandson was alive, she spoke to him on Thursday.

Young Bati was spotted in Toulousehas been identified by the French authorities and will be immediately returned to his family in Britain.

How he was found – What he said about his “abduction”.

The British teenager was walking alone in heavy rain near the city of Toulouse in the early hours of Wednesday morningholding a skateboard, when he was spotted by a 26-year-old French chiropractic student.

Fabiem Axidini offered the “very tired” youngster a ride in his car, which he did. As he told Sky News, the initially shy 17-year-old, who said his name was Jacques, but after a while began to tell his story.

He revealed his true identity and said that from in 2011 he had been kidnapped by his mother Melanie Baty and was living with her in a luxurious Spanish villa at the foot of the Pyrenees with about ten other people, as members of a “spiritual community”.

In 2021 they moved to France.

He also said that he had been walking for more than four days in the mountains of the area trying to get to England.

The 26-year-old initially did not believe his fellow passenger’s story, but agreed to call the police when he heard more details.

“When the police came I realized the whole story was real”said Axidini.

In fact, he added that young Alex did not seem “angry” about what had happened to him. “He wasn’t sorry (for leaving the community)… he just wanted to live a normal life, see his grandmother again and have a normal futurethat was the word he used,” added the French student.