• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Boy who was missing for six years speaks out on what happened to him

Home> News> UK News

Published 16:19 15 Dec 2023 GMT

Boy who was missing for six years speaks out on what happened to him

He was found safe and well after being missing for six years

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

The British teen who has been found safe and well in France after disappearing six years ago has been speaking to officials about how he was living during the time he was away.

Alex Batty, from Oldham, was just 11-years-old when he disappeared while on holiday with his mum Melanie Batty and grandfather David. Neither relative was his legal guardian.

Alex had flown to Malaga Airport for what was expected to be a week-long stay in the Benahavis area near Marbella, but his relatives did not return on 8 October, 2017, as planned.

The now 17-year-old will be heading back to the UK very soon.
GMP

Advert

Alex, now 17, was found near the French city of Toulouse on Wednesday and taken to a police station in the village of Revel by chiropody student Fabien Accidini.

His grandmother, and legal guardian, Susan Caruana said she was ‘thrilled’ with the news.

She told the Sun: “I am so happy. I have spoken to him and he is well. He is currently with the authorities in France. It is such a shock.

“I don't know where his mum is. It is great news. I am just waiting for him to come home - I am thrilled.”

Today (Friday 15 December), Toulouse Assistant Public Prosecutor Antoine Leroy told reporters what Alex had told authorities.

Advert

He said: “When his mother indicated that she was going to leave with him to Finland, this young man understood that this had to stop.

“So he then decided to leave the place where he was with his mother and he went walking for four days and four nights.

“He was exclusively walking at night and sleeping in the day.”

Alex was found roaming the mountains in the South of France.
GMP

He went on: “He doesn’t describe any kind of physical violence, without talking about emotional violence.

Advert

“We can’t use the term ‘sect’ as such but he talks of a spiritual community.”

He continued: “The mother experienced a sort of fear of solar panels, so they were travelling from house to house with solar panels.

“They only used car-sharing, they didn’t have their own vehicle.”

Leroy added: “What I’m describing is what happened in Morocco, in Spain and in France – it was always the same way of living.”

Speaking about Alex’s condition when he was checked over by officials, Leroy said: “This young man was described by the police who have seen him and by the doctors who examined him as ‘tired’ but overall in good health.

Advert

“He’s said to be intelligent even though he’s never been to school in this entire period.”


Featured Image Credit: GMP/PA

Topics: UK News

Claire Reid
Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

7 hours ago
9 hours ago
11 hours ago
  • 7 hours ago

    Elon Musk urges release of Epstein files weeks after accusing Trump of being involved in fiery X rant

    Musk made a bombshell claim about his former 'first buddy'

    News
  • 9 hours ago

    Arne Slot releases emotional statement after Diogo Jota tragically dies aged 28

    The Liverpool forward and his brother died this morning

    News
  • 9 hours ago

    Mum says picture of her son at nursery saved his life after camera flash revealed rare disease

    Laura Davies, from Wales, says she would have 'never known' without the photo

    News
  • 11 hours ago

    Brit, 29, who fell ill moments after getting tattoo on hen do fighting for life in coma

    Poppy-Mae Crutchley began to feel unwell 'instantly' after she got the inking in the Spanish party hotspot

    News
  • Man whose Airbnb Jay Slater stayed at before going missing speaks out on what happened that night
  • Man scammed out of hundreds by 'Jennifer Aniston' who told him 'she loved him'
  • Met Police advice on 'sextortion' after boy, 14, dies after thinking he was flirting with woman online
  • Woman who was abandoned as a baby reveals how she found her father 24 years later