Missing British Boy Found Alive In France Six Years Later

A British boy believed to have been kidnapped by his estranged mother and grandpa six years ago is reported to have surfaced in France this week.

Alex Batty, now 17, was discovered in Revel, near Toulouse, on Wednesday, December 13, according to La Depeche.

According to the outlet, the teen, who is originally from Oldham in Greater Manchester, revealed his own name and identification to local authorities.

He is supposed to have fled on his own last week from some sort of “spiritual community,” according to the article.

Greater Manchester Police are investigating French authorities’ assertions that Batty is who he claims to be.

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The British boy who had gone missing was discovered alive in France six years later.

Batty was only 11 years old when his mother, Melanie Batty, and maternal grandfather, David Batty – neither of whom had custody of him – took him to Spain for a pre-arranged vacation on Sept. 30, 2017, according to the BBC.

The trio was last seen together on Oct. 8 in the Port of Malaga, but never returned to the UK, according to the outlet.

Susan Caruana, Batty’s legal guardian, later told the press that she believed Melanie and David stole the boy because they had a “different belief system.”

“They didn’t want him to go to school, they don’t believe in mainstream school,” the grieving grandmother explained, according to the BBC.

The Greater Manchester Police alleged in a 2019 information request that Melanie may have moved her kid to a hamlet in Morocco.

Melanie and David allegedly pulled Batty into some type of travelling community and had been roaming between Ariège and Aude in the weeks before the teen’s discovery, according to La Depeche.

Batty supposedly left the group on his own accord at the conclusion of the previous week, and was finally hitchhiked with a trucker who sensed something was wrong with the teen’s circumstances, according to the site.

According to reports, the truck driver notified authorities.

Batty told his story “serenely and calmly,” according to La Depeche.

He is now in the care of social services as authorities await word from his relatives.