Teen instructed investigators he spent six years dwelling a nomadic way of life 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 dwelling after travelling to Spain in 2017 along with his mom and grandfather for what was purported 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 evening in southern France.
“It provides me nice pleasure to say Alex has now made his secure return again to the UK after six years,” Matt Boyle of Higher Manchester Police instructed 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 searching for to find his mom Melanie Batty, would converse 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 courtroom entrusted along 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 reduction and happiness that Alex has been discovered secure and properly,” she stated in a press release issued by means of British police.
“The principle factor is that he’s secure, after what could be an amazing expertise for anybody, not least a toddler.”
Batty instructed French officers he spent the previous six years dwelling a nomadic way of life along with his mom and grandfather in Spain, Morocco and France as a part of a “non secular group”.
He stated the household grew their very own meals, meditated and contemplated esoteric topics corresponding 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 instructed 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.