Alex, his mother Melanie Batty and Alex’s grandfather, David Batty, traveled from Manchester for a week’s holiday in Spain at the end of September 2017. The mother did not have parental responsibility for the little boy. The last confirmed sighting of Alex was in Malaga on 8 October, the same day the three were due to return to the UK. Alternative lifestyle Alex’s grandmother has said that her mother got the feeling to live “an alternative lifestyle” when she was in Morocco in 2014. Among other things, she did not want her son to go to a normal school in the UK. It would turn out that during the years Alex was gone, he moved around with his mother to various collectives in Morocco, Spain and France. This week, after six years, Alex was found by a French student and professional driver driving on a road in a desolate area of the Pyrenees, south-west France. In the pouring rain, at three in the morning, Fabien Accidini noticed a young boy walking along the road with a skateboard under his arm. Along this road Alex was walking in the middle of the night when Fabien Accidini came driving and took him with him to Toulouse. Photo: Reuters – The boy was blond, quite tall and wearing a white jumper and black jeans. He carried a rucksack on his back and walked with a flashlight in the dark. Accidini first drove past the boy but felt guilty, turned around and asked if he wanted to sit on. Sleep during the day, walk at night – He said his name was Zach and he was 17 years old. He seemed very shy. I quickly noticed that he spoke bad French, and started talking to him in English, says Accidini to the newspaper La Dépeche du Midi. He says that the two talked for three hours. – The teenager quickly revealed who he really was. Then he told me his story. He described how his mother had kidnapped him when he was 11 years old. He said he was on his way to Toulouse and the British Consulate there. He said he wanted to go home to Manchester, says Accidini. It was Alex Batty he had picked up along the way. Fabien Accidini took Alex to the authorities in Toulouse. Photo: AFP Alex had walked for four days in the Pyrenees to get to a bigger city in France. The closest was Toulouse. He said he slept during the day and walked at night to avoid detection. – All he had on him was 100 Euros in cash, a flashlight, his rucksack and his skateboard. He had no mobile phone. He said that he ate what he came across in nature and in gardens he passed through. – Wanted to live in a real world – The boy borrowed my mobile phone to get in touch with his grandmother, says Accidini. She is the formal guardian of Alex. The mother no longer has custody of Alex. “Hi Grandma, it’s me, Alex. I am in Toulouse France and I really hope you get this message. I love you and I want to come home,” Alex wrote on Messenger. The text message from Alex to his grandmother Accidini tells French TV that the teenager was relieved to have managed to escape. – He did not want to live his whole life in this community that his mother sought out. He wants to live in a real world and have a proper future. He never got the impression that the boy had been locked up in any way. One of the photos of Alex used by the police in Manchester in their search for Alex. Photo: Manchester police Alex never mentioned his grandfather when he told Fabien Accidini his story. The authorities in France believe the grandfather died six months ago. Lived as a nomad French authorities have subsequently filled in many of the gaps in the boy’s six-year history. From southern Spain, the three traveled on to Morocco, where they sought out a so-called spiritual community. There they lived almost like nomads. They stayed a few weeks in one place before traveling on. Places where Alex is known to have stayed. After the small family had lived in a collective of 10 people in a luxury house in Spain, they traveled on to northern France. This was in the transition 2020–2021. They joined “a somewhat strange spiritual community that lived far from a normal lifestyle”, deep in some valleys in the Pyrenees. Here they moved around for two years together with families from Canada, Spain and India. They supported themselves by doing odd jobs and growing vegetables. They always lived in large houses where families moved in and out, according to French authorities. Don’t know where he has lived Alex said that he doesn’t really know where he has lived in recent years, only that it was in various places east of the Pyrenees in France, on the border with Spain. The area is known for attracting people who want to live out alternative lifestyles. Divorced in the area of the Pyrenees where Alex was found. Photo: AFP – When his mother said she planned to move to Finland, Alex decided the nomadic lifestyle was not for him, lawyer Antoine Leroy said at a press conference in Toulouse after Alex was settled. It was discovered that he had no formal schooling, and little experience with technology. At the same time, he seemed intelligent and harmonious, according to Leroy. – I am so happy. I have spoken to him and he is fine, Alex’s grandmother told The Sun newspaper. “This was really a shock.” Now Alex is safely at home with his grandmother in Manchester. – It is a great pleasure to say that Alex has now returned safely to the UK after six years, says Matt Boyle of the police in Manchester.
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Alex (17) back in England after being missing for six years – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
