Greater Manchester police have said they have launched an investigation into the alleged abduction of Alex Batty, a 17-year-old who went missing while on holiday in Spain at the age of 11.
Police officers have interviewed the teenager, from Oldham, who was found walking in France, as part of efforts to establish whether he was abducted.
In a recent interview with the Sun newspaper, Alex said he had been living with his mother, Melanie Batty, in Chalabre in the Aude region of southern France but chose to leave after an argument. He said he wanted to receive a conventional education so he could become a computer software engineer.
The boy’s image filled newspaper pages after he was reported missing by his grandmother and legal guardian Susan Caruana six years ago when he did not return from a prearranged trip. She believed his mother and grandfather David had taken him to live with a spiritual community in Morocco.
It is thought that he moved around a lot in Spain and France as a child, most recently living in a French farmhouse.
Alex said he left this home after dark when he realised he could no longer live with his “anti-government, anti-vax” mother.
In the interview, Alex said he first started thinking about leaving when he was 14 or 15.
“I realised it wasn’t a great way to live for my future. The cloud had lifted because I started weighing everything up again – the pros and cons of England.”
He said he had done a lot of moving around with “no friends, no social life”. “Working, working, work and not studying. That’s the life I imagined I would be leading if I were to stay with my mum.”
Alex was picked up by Fabien Accidini, a chiropody student, near the French city of Toulouse in the early hours of Wednesday last week after walking 22 miles in two days.
He initially told French police he had taken an extraordinary trip across the Pyrenees, which he hoped would protect his family members from being arrested for child abduction.
However, he said: “I’ve been lying to try and protect my mum and grandad but I realise that they’re probably going to get caught anyway.
“I pretended I had been on such a long journey for that reason.”
He also spoke about being reunited with Caruana: “When I got back to Manchester it was raining as usual. I was driven back to my gran’s house and I walked in the door and she’s in the living room. I started shaking and just gave her a massive hug.
“The house is different now but still feels the same. The biggest difference is when I left I was a boy but now I’m 6ft so I’m too big for the bed. It feels great to be back.”
