The grandmother of a missing teenager who was found in France six years after he disappeared has told of her relief at finally being reunited with him.
Alex Batty, now aged 17, had been living a nomadic lifestyle with his mother in a spiritual community who had an obsession with solar panels and energy, French prosecutors said.
Alex is set to fly to Manchester on Saturday, before returning to the home of his grandmother, Susan Caruana, 68, in Oldham.
In a statement, she said: “I cannot begin to express my relief and happiness that Alex has been found safe and well.
“I spoke with him last night and it was so good to hear his voice and see his face again. I can’t wait to see him when we’re reunited.
“The main thing is that he’s safe, after what would be an overwhelming experience for anyone, not least a child.
“I would ask that our family are given privacy as we welcome Alex back, so we can make this process as comforting as possible.”
Alex was picked up by a lorry driver near Toulouse after walking alone on an isolated country road "for days", it was revealed on Thursday. He told the driver his mother had "kidnapped" him in 2017.
Alex, from Oldham in Greater Manchester, was 11 years old when he did not return from a holiday in Spain in October 2017.
He had visited Spain with his mother Melanie Batty and grandfather David Batty for a week long holiday near Marbella but a police inquiry was launched to find Alex after the trio did not return home as planned.
David and Melanie Batty have not been located but were wanted by police in connection with Alex’s disappearance.
David Batty is thought to have died six months ago, French prosecutors said, adding that "it's possible" Melanie Batty has already left for Finland.
Toulouse Assistant Public Prosecutor Antoine Leroy said on Friday that Alex and his mother had lived in Morocco before moving to France to live in a community in the Pyrenees with other families from countries such as Canada and India.
Although Mr Leroy said the "spiritual community" could not be described as a "sect", Alex told French authorities that he did not have a fixed home and up to 10 people would live together at one time in large houses.
He told police that his mother and grandfather had an obsession with energy and solar panels and would live self-sufficiently through their vegetable gardens and allotments. They would find "small jobs" as they moved from place to place.
Alex did not know where he had been living before he decided the life he was having with his mother “had to stop” after she announced intentions to move to Finland.
Mr Leroy told reporters: “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.
“He walked and he got food from whatever he found in the fields and the gardens and he was then found at about 3am on Wednesday by a young man."
Describing how Alex had been living over the past six years, Mr Leroy said: “They would work on the ego, there was meditation work – there was no connection with the real world.
“They believed in reincarnation."
Speaking about Alex’s condition, Mr 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.
“He’s said to be intelligent even though he’s never been to school in this entire period.”
Greater Manchester Police said on Friday they were working with the French authorities to bring Alex Batty back to Britain quickly.
GMP Assistant Chief Constable Chris Sykes said Alex had a video call with his grandmother and while she's "content" the person she spoke to is Alex, officers have "further checks to do" when he returns home.
He added: "I can only imagine the emotions they have experienced as a family throughout this ordeal."
He said Alex's family in Oldham are "massively relieved" that he's been found, adding that a "whole host of emotions are going through their mind at the moment as they come to terms with this good news”. He was being "well looked" after by French authorities, he said.His aunt said they feared for Alex’s wellbeing after so long away from his family in Britain and outside mainstream education. Maureen Batty, 73, told the Daily Mail: "Alex has been brainwashed by the religion David was in."
Ms Batty added: "Alex hasn’t had any education while out there, so we don’t know what he’ll be like when he comes home. [He] has had it rough. It is a mess. I’ve been told that Alex said that he had escaped and he didn’t want to lead that lifestyle. I just want to know the truth about what’s gone on."
Fabien Accidini, a chirpractic student from Toulouse who has a part-time job delivering medicines by lorry, said he spotted the English teenager on Wednesday.
Mr Accidini told French news outlet La Depeche: “During the first few minutes, he seemed a little shy. We tried to speak in French but I noticed that he had not mastered the language. I decided to communicate in English. ‘When I asked him his name, he pretended his name was Zach, and then we continued chatting.
“We talked for over three hours! Very quickly, he gave me his real identity – Alex Batty – before telling me his story."
Mr Accidini recounted: “He arrived in France in around 2021. In the middle of last weekend, he decided to leave his mother to join his family in England. He had been walking in the mountain for more than four days!
“He lived with his mother in a spiritual community, far away from normal life. Alex told me his mother was a little crazy but she never imprisoned him.
“He could leave if he wanted. He had no animosity towards her but really wanted to find his grandmother. He missed his loved ones.’"
Alex said he did not know exactly where he had been living in France, except that it was in the mountains between the areas of Ariège and Aude, Mr Accidini recalled.
In a statement, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said: “We are supporting a British national in France and are in contact with local authorities.”
