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British boy who vanished on Costa del Sol holiday 6 years ago found in France
Alex Batty was just 11 years old when he disappeared while on vacation in Málaga
In a tale more reminiscent of a Hollywood movie than real life, a child who disappeared without a trace while on holiday in Spain has resurfaced in France six years later, safe and well.
Alex Batty, originally from Oldham, was just 11 years old when he went on holiday to Málaga with his mum and grandfather in 2017. When he failed to return home, his distraught grandmother claimed that her daughter, 37-year-old Melanie, and her 58-year-old husband David had abducted him to live an “alternative lifestyle” in France.
Now, all these years later, prosecutors in UK claim that Alex has been found after fleeing from a spiritual retreat, and his mum and granddad, near Toulouse. It appears that the boy, now 17, trekked alone for days through the French Pyrenees before he was picked up by Fabien Accidini, a local chiropractic student.
Realising that his charge could only speak English, the driver understood something was amiss and brought his passenger to a police station in Revel, where the boy revealed that he was indeed missing Alex Batty.
His grandmother and legal guardian, Susan Caruana, explained that Alex, Melanie and David flew to Spain for a week-long holiday in Benahavis on September 30, 2017, but they failed to return to England as planned on October 8. Alex had actually lived with his mum, who no longer had custody of the child, in a commune in Morocco in 2014 and Greater Manchester Police immediately began a large-scale search for the kidnapped boy.
Susan has tried to get in touch with Alex via social media over the years to no avail and now his extended family, who expect to be reunited with the long-lost child in the coming days, claim he was “brainwashed” by the religious teachings of the commune.
Alex’s aunt, Maureen Batty, 73, explained: “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.”
According to the French media, before Alex decided to flee, he had been living between Ariege and Aude just east of Perpignan in southern France in tents and caravans.
Image: Greater Manchester Police
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