A British teenager missing for six years escaped a “spiritual commune” in France after his mother announced she was leaving to travel to Finland.
Alex Batty was allegedly abducted by his mother Melanie Batty and his grandfather David Batty, when the trio went on a holiday to Spain in 2017, leaving the boy’s legal guardian and grandmother Susan Caruana at home in Oldham.
Ms Caruana is set to be reunited with her now 17-year-old grandson after Alex was found walking, carrying only a skateboard and €100 in cash, in the French Pyrenees in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
A video was released by Greater Manchester Police of Alex Batty (L) with his mother, Melanie, and grandfather, David, after he went missing— (Supplied)
“I cannot begin to express my relief and happiness that Alex has been found safe and well,” she said in a statement issued on Friday. “I spoke with him last night and it was so good to hear his voice and see his face again. I can’t wait to see him when we’re reunited.”
Toulouse assistant public prosecutor Antoine Leroy told a press conference on Friday that Alex had made his escape after his mother announced plans to take him to Finland. The teenager told authorities his grandfather had died six months beforehand.
The trio, Mr Leroy said, had been living a nomadic lifestyle in “spiritual communites” in Spain, Morocco and France after vanishing on holiday near Marbella six years ago.
“When his mother indicated that she was going to leave with him to Finland, this young man understood that this had to stop,” Mr Leroy said. “So then he decided to leave the place where he was with his mother and walked for four days and four nights.
“He had €100 on him and was trying to get to Toulouse without meeting many people. That’s why he was travelling at night and sleeping during the day.”
Alex Batty went missing with his mother and grandfather when he was aged 11— (PA)
The teenager, said to be tired but in good health, had told officers his mother had a phobia of solar panels.
Mr Leroy added: “He [Alex] doesn’t describe any kind of physical violence, without talking about emotional violence. The mother experienced a sort of fear of solar panels, so they were travelling to house to house with solar panels.”
The commune they lived in was “spiritual”, Mr Leroy said, with a focus on meditation and “no connection to the real world”.
Alex escaped by walking for four days, moving at night and sleeping during the day, to avoid detection. However, on Wednesday at 2am, delivery driver Fabien Accidini spotted the exhausted teenager and picked him up before taking him to police in Revel, near Toulouse.
Mr Accidini, a chiropractic student, said: “He explained that he had been walking for four days, that he set off from a place in the mountains, though he didn’t say where. I typed his name into the internet and saw that he was being looked for.”
French prosecutor Antoine Leroy said Alex had told police he had left his mother after she decided to move to Finland— (Reuters)
In her statement, Ms Caruana asked for privacy as she looked forward to welcoming Alex back. She added: “The main thing is that he’s safe, after what would be an overwhelming experience for anyone, not least a child.”
However, some in the family fear of the impact of being away from home for so long on Alex. His aunt, Maureen Batty, told The Daily Mail: “Alex has been brainwashed by the religion David was in. Alex hasn’t had any education while out there, so we don’t know what he’ll be like when he comes home. [He] has had it rough. It is a mess.
“I’ve been told that Alex said that he had escaped and he didn’t want to lead that lifestyle. I just want to know the truth about what’s gone on.”
Assistant Chief Constable Chris Sykes, of Greater Manchester Police, said he was “relieved and overjoyed” and was working with the French authorities to bring the teenager home in the “next few days”.
