A British boy, missing for six years, turns up in France

A British boy who disappeared six years ago at the age of 11 while on holiday in Spain has turned up in France, prosecutors there said. A delivery person found the boy, now a teenager, walking in the rain early Wednesday with a skateboard and a flashlight.

The boy, Alex Batty, from Oldham, England, disappeared in 2017 while visiting Málaga with his mother and grandfather. None of them returned to Britain. Alex’s mother and grandfather, whose whereabouts remain unknown, are wanted by British authorities for their role in his disappearance.

Alex’s legal guardian, his grandmother Susan Caruana, has said she believed his mother, Melanie Batty, and his grandfather, David Batty, had sought an alternative lifestyle with Alex on the continent. Ms. Caruana and Mr. Batty have not been involved since Alex’s disappearance.

“The reason I believe they did this is because my lifestyle, my belief systems, are not actually what they agree with: just living day to day, like normal people do,” Ms. Caruana said. told the Guardian in 2018. “They didn’t want him to go to school, they don’t believe in regular education.”

French prosecutors said Alex, now 17, was found in Revel, south-west France. Relatives had confirmed his identity from photographs, they said, and he was expected to return to Britain soon. Greater Manchester Police said they were in contact with French authorities.

The delivery man who found him, Fabien Accidini, saw Alex walking in the rainy darkness in Chalabre around 2 a.m. and stopped to give him a ride, he told the local newspaper. La Dépêche.

Mr Accidini said he spoke to the teenager for three hours before taking him to police. Alex told him that he had lived in a traveling spiritual community in Spain and later France, but had decided to leave, partly because he missed his loved ones in Britain.

He told Mr Accidini that he had been walking for four days. Photos of a smiling boy with short, light brown hair have been circulating in the news for years. Authorities have not released a current photo of the teen.

“It’s Alex Batty, 100 percent,” Mr Accidini told the newspaper. “When I saw the photos published by the English media, I had absolutely no doubts about his words. I think he’s a little stressed about all this. I hope he can reconnect with his past life, and that maybe one day we will meet again.”

Mrs. Caruana told The Times of London on Thursday: “I spoke to him this afternoon, and it’s definitely him. I spoke to a boy when he was with us, and now I speak to a man.

She added: “It’s quite unbelievable when you don’t know if someone is dead or alive.”

Aurelien Breeden contributed reporting from Paris.