Alex Batty, young Briton found in France six years after his disappearance, will be repatriated to the United Kingdom “in the coming days”

2023-12-15 13:27:42
The Revel gendarmerie, in Haute-Garonne, where Alex Batty was received. STEPHANE MAHE / REUTERS

Alex Batty disappeared in 2017, at the age of eleven. This young Briton, who is now seventeen years old and was found this week near Toulouse, should quickly be repatriated to England, near Manchester where he is from, and returned to his grandmother, who in custody.

“We’re waiting for the grandmother to come pick him up. We are waiting to put in place repatriation with the British”declared Friday to Agence France-Presse the public prosecutor of Toulouse, Samuel Vuelta-Simon.

“Our priority is to bring him back to the UK”, said the Greater Manchester police, in the northwest of England. Alex Batty is ” expected “ In ” the next days “added his deputy chief commissioner, Chris Sykes, at a press conference.

Currently, the young man “is sheltered, social services have taken care of him”said the Toulouse prosecutor, without specifying the exact location where he was. “We are in contact, of course, with the British police (…) We are in close contact with them to organize” this repatriation, he continued, specifying: “Recognition is well established, there is no problem”.

A “spiritual community” in Morocco

” I am very happy “Susan Caruana, the teenager’s grandmother, told the British newspaper The Sun THURSDAY. “I spoke to him this afternoon and there’s no doubt it’s him. When he was with us, I was talking to a child, now I’m talking to a man.”she also told the Times. “It’s so incredible not to know if someone is dead or alive”Ms. Caruana told the British daily.

According to the BBC, citing a police source, the young man, who is in good health, claimed not to have suffered ill-treatment.

He disappeared in 2017 while on vacation abroad with his mother and grandfather. “The mother and the grandfather (…) have not been found, but they are still sought in connection with this disappearance”according to the BBC.

His grandmother said in 2018 that she believed Alex’s mother and grandfather, from whom she is divorced, took him to live in a “spiritual community” in Morocco.

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According to La Dépêche du MidiAlex Batty was picked up by a drug deliveryman to pharmacies, who came across him “around 2 o’clock” in the morning at the side of a road, in Aude, during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, a version corroborated by a source close to the case.

The World with AFP