Oldham teen ‘abducted by mother’ to return to UK after being found in France – live

A British boy who has been missing for six years told the French lorry driver who found him walking alone on an isolated country road: ‘My mother kidnapped me when I was 12 years old’.

Startling details of now 17-year-old Alex Batty’s ordeal began to emerge on Thursday evening, after it was confirmed he had been found safe and well.

The youngster, from Fitton Hill in Oldham, went abroad with his mother Melanie Batty who does not have legal parental guardianship, and his grandfather David Batty on a pre-agreed trip in 2017. However, they did not return to England as expected on October 8 2017 and he had not been seen since.

Fabien Accidini, a chiropractic student from Toulouse who has a part-time job delivering medicines by lorry, said he spotted the English teenager on Wednesday.

But when and why did Alex originally go missing? The Independent has put together a timeline below:

The now 17-year-old from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was 11 years old when he went missing in 2017. He went on holiday to Marbella, Spain, on a pre-agreed trip with his mother Melanie 37, and grandfather David, 58, when he was apparently “abducted” by his mother.

His grandmother and legal guardian Susan Caruana stayed at home in the UK. Inquiries at the time suggested he may have travelled from Malaga to Melilla on the Moroccan border. Police then launched an investigation.

Speaking to reporters after his disappearance, Ms Caruana said: “On the Sunday, they were due back in the afternoon and my husband was going to pick them up. I got this message on Facebook and it was a YouTube video of the three of them.

France’s BFM TV reported Alex’s mother belonged to a spiritualist group without a fixed residence, moving around the region known as a destination for people in pursuit of an alternative way of life in caravans and tents.

A search operation to find her has been started, the television station added.

“We still have some work to do in establishing the full circumstances surrounding his disappearance and where he has been in all those years,” Assistant Chief Constable Chris Sykes of Greater Manchester Police said.

“At the moment the priority is speaking to Alex … but obviously his mother is part of that conversation and investigation.”

Alex Batty’s aunt, Maureen Batty, said the situation is a “mess” and she does not know what the teenager “will be like” when he comes home.

Speaking to the Mirror on Thursday evening, Ms Batty said she was “relieved” because she had “no idea about where he has been for the last six or seven years”.

She said: “I don’t know where his mother or grandad are and they are not pressing Alex about it yet. Alex hasn’t had any education while out there, so we don’t know what he’ll be like when he comes home. It has affected me. Alex has had it rough. It is a mess.”

Asking to message his grandmother Susan Caruana, his legal guardian, he wrote to her on Facebook: “I love you, I want to come home.” The teenager was taken to police and is now expected back home in Oldham in the next few days.

But while the overjoyed family prepare to be reunited, questions remain over where the boy had been living over the past six years, the whereabouts of his mother and grandfather and the impact the period has had on him.

Here are the last known movements of Alex Batty before he was found this week in Toulouse.

Questioned on how Alex and his grandmother Susan Caruana are feeling, Assistant Chief Constable Chris Sykes of Greater Manchester Police, said: “From what I have seen from the officers that have spoken to the grandmother, she has a whole host of emotions and feelings as you could imagine.

“The French authorities have been looking after Alex really, really well.

“Our real concern is how we bring Alex back to the UK in a safe way and make sure we look after his wellbeing.”

Almost 1,000 miles away from his home, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, a delivery driver spotted 17-year-old Alex Batty walking along a road in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

The driver offered him a lift and the missing British teenager, from Oldham in Greater Manchester, reportedly soon told him that he had been living in France for the past two years after moving there from a luxury house in Spain — where he went on holiday six years ago and never returned.

The driver, a chiropody student called Fabien Accidini who alerted local police, discovered Alex near the town of Revel near Toulouse, 990 miles from the teenager’s home in Fitton Hill, Oldham. The boy, whose had last been seen at the Port of Malaga in October 2017, had hiked for more than four days in an apparent attempt to return home.