Teen advised investigators he spent six years residing a nomadic life-style in Spain, Morocco and France.
A British teenager who went lacking for six years earlier than turning up in France has arrived again in the UK, police have stated.
Alex Batty by no means returned residence after travelling to Spain in 2017 together with his mom and grandfather for what was presupposed to be a two-week household vacation.
The then 11-year-old boy’s disappearance sparked unsuccessful appeals for details about his whereabouts – till he turned up final week strolling alongside a highway late at night time in southern France.
“It offers me nice pleasure to say Alex has now made his secure return again to the UK after six years,” Matt Boyle of Larger Manchester Police advised reporters on Saturday.
Boyle stated police are but to totally set up the circumstances surrounding his disappearance and whether or not a prison investigation is warranted.
Boyle stated that officers, who’re in search of to find his mom Melanie Batty, would communicate to the teenager “at a tempo that feels snug to him”.
Batty, now 17, will return to his maternal grandmother, Susan Caruana, whom a British court docket entrusted together with his custody earlier than he vanished.
Caruana requested that the household be granted area to course of the information.
“I can’t start to specific my aid and happiness that Alex has been discovered secure and effectively,” she stated in a press release issued by British police.
“The primary factor is that he’s secure, after what could be an amazing expertise for anybody, not least a baby.”
Batty advised French officers he spent the previous six years residing a nomadic life-style together with his mom and grandfather in Spain, Morocco and France as a part of a “non secular neighborhood”.
He stated the household grew their very own meals, meditated and contemplated esoteric topics akin to reincarnation.
A physician who examined Batty stated the teenager was wholesome and didn’t seem to have suffered any abuse.
French prosecutor Antoine Leroy advised reporters on Friday that Batty had determined to depart his household after his mom stated she wished to maneuver to Finland, the place she is “probably” to be now.
