Alex Batty was abducted as an 11-year-old - now he has reappeared in the south of France

British boy - Alex Batty was abducted as an 11-year-old - now he has reappeared in the south of France

Alex Batty was 11 years old when he disappeared without a trace. He was living in Oldham in the UK with his grandmother, who had guardianship of him. In September 2017, he was due to travel to Spain with his mother and grandfather for a week-long family vacation. His grandmother was unable to travel with him due to illness. When he did not return from the trip, his worried grandmother immediately contacted the authorities and reported him missing. She stated that she assumed that her daughter and her ex-husband had abducted her grandson in order to raise him in a cult and give him an "alternative lifestyle".

Batty had previously lived with his grandmother for three years. His mother had lost custody of him. She was of the opinion that an ordinary school was not for her son and that he should grow up in an alternative lifestyle instead. After a stay in a spiritual commune in Morocco, a court established the grandmother as the sole legal guardian.

There was no trace of the missing boy for six years - until last Thursday. The now 17-year-old is said to have turned up in the south of France, according to several French media reports. A courier driver found him in the middle of the night.

Between luxury apartment and alternative faith community

The driver, a chiropractic student from Toulouse, was delivering medication by car when he spotted a figure on the side of a country road at around 2 am. A young man was walking through the pouring rain with a skateboard under his arm. The courier first drove past him. "When I passed him for the second time, I decided to offer to drop him off somewhere," the driver told the southern French regional newspaper "La Dépêche du Midi".

Batty got in with the courier driver and the two began to talk to each other. When the driver asked him his name, the young man initially claimed his name was Zach. "We talked for over three hours! He very quickly revealed his true identity - Alex Batty - and told me his story," said the driver.

Alex Batty wandered disoriented through the mountains for four days

Batty says that he was kidnapped in 2017 and then "lived in Spain for three years in a luxury house with around 10 people". Most recently, he is said to have stayed with his mother and grandfather in a wandering spiritual community in southwest France. However, he left the community - for his grandmother.

"He had no animosity towards his mother, but he was desperate to find his grandmother. He missed his loved ones very much," says the courier driver. To get back to England, the 17-year-old hiked through nearby mountains for four days - hoping to find people who would help him, he said. The courier said Batty "had no regrets [about leaving the community] ... He just wanted to live a normal life, see his grandmother again and have a 'normal' future - that's the word he used."

"I love you, I want to come home"

The driver lent Batty his cell phone. The 17-year-old sent a message to his grandmother via his Facebook profile. "I love you, I want to come home," it said. The courier driver then took him to a police station, where he is said to have spent the night sleeping on the floor.

The public prosecutor's office in Toulouse announced on Thursday that the boy had been positively identified by his family as the missing Alex Batty from photographs. According to the French authorities, he will now travel home to his grandmother. Further investigations into Batty's whereabouts over the last few years are to be carried out by British colleagues.