BREAKING NEWS Teenager Alex Batty finally steps foot on British soil for the first time in six years as he is reunited with his grandmother in Manchester after being ‘kidnapped by his mother’ as an 11-year-old

• Alex Batty was found this week after being allegedly kidnapped six years ago
• He is travelling back to the UK to be reunited with his maternal grandmother 

The missing British teenager found in France this week has finally been reunited with his grandmother some six years after being allegedly kidnapped by his mother and grandfather.

Alex Batty, 17, landed in Manchester this evening, walking off the plane with a skateboard under his arm before being promptly whisked away.

It is the welcome end of a long journey for Alex, who was found on Wednesday after escaping a ‘nomadic’ life in a ‘spiritual community’ in the French Pyrenees, years after he failed to return from a family holiday in Spain.

Assistant Prosecutor Antoine Leroy confirmed that Alex had been ‘accompanied by British police officers’ on a KLM flight via Amsterdam this evening, after saying on Friday Alex would be reunited with his grandmother following checks to confirm his identity. 

Ms Caruana shared her ‘relief and happiness’ at the news after years trying desperately to get in touch. ‘I spoke with him last night and it was so good to hear his voice and see his face again,’ she said in a statement released by Greater Manchester Police on Friday.

‘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.’

Alex Batty, from Oldham, Lancashire, was just 11 when he did not return from a holiday to Spain with his mother Melanie, then 37, and grandfather David, then 58, in 2017. He has now been found six years later 

Alex’s grandmother Susan Caruana said: ‘I cannot begin to express my relief and happiness that Alex has been found’ (file image)

Alex Batty disappeared with his mother Melanie Batty and grandfather David Batty

Alex flew to Malaga in September 2017 before being taken to a ‘spiritual community’ in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Investigators believe Alex escaped the rural community in southern France and spent days trekking across the French Pyrenees before being picked up by a trucker who took him to a police station in Revel, near Toulouse

Alex Batty, from Oldham, was just 11 when he did not return from a holiday to Spain with his mother Melanie, then 37, and grandfather David, then 58, in 2017.

He has spent the last two years living in a ‘spiritual community’ in the foothills of the French Pyrenees with his mother and grandfather and about 10 other people who all believed in reincarnation, police have said.

READ MORE: Alex Batty’s grandfather ‘is NOT dead’: Neighbour says abducted teen’s fugitive relative did not die six months ago – and was spotted mowing his lawn 10 days ago 

Alex’s grandmother revealed yesterday that she is ‘over the moon’ after speaking to her grandson on a video call for the first time in six years and is now ‘desperate to see him’ – after it was announced he would be able to return to the UK to live with her.

‘It’s amazing. It’s an incredible story. It’s unbelievable after all these years. I’m in shock, I can’t believe it. I have spoken to him and he’s well.

‘I’m desperate to see him over the weekend but I don’t know what’s happening. I’m waiting for the authorities to let me know. It’s been all over the news. It’s breath-taking, and I’m over the moon. I just can’t believe it.’

Police said on Friday that Alex told them he decided to flee the mountain community following his grandfather’s death six months ago and after his mother said she planned to move with him to Finland.

‘When his mother indicated that she was going to leave with him to Finland, this young man understood that this had to stop. So then he decided to leave the place where he was with his mother and walked for four days and four nights,’ Leroy explained. 

Melanie Batty has yet to be found and could be in Finland, Leroy said. 

Alex trekked across the mountains in the French Pyrenees until he was found by student Fabien Accidini on Wednesday at 3am.

‘He was exclusively walking at night and sleeping in the day,’ Leroy said. ‘He got food from fields and gardens before he was found.’ He added that Alex had 100 euros but no phone.

Alex was picked up on the D16 – an unlit single carriageway country road between the towns of Chalabre and Mirepoix – with locals saying he was lucky not to have been run over and killed.

He was wandering along the road in the pitch black when he was spotted by the chiropractic student from Toulouse, who was delivering medical supplies to villages in the rural Aude department in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

He clearly needed help,’ Fabien told AFP. ‘He was a bit suspicious at first,’ he added, initially giving a false name. But as the boy helped him with his deliveries to local pharmacies, he began to open up.

‘When he told me he’d been abducted, I made him say it again – it was crazy!’

Alex Batty’s Grandmother Susan Caruana answers her door to reporters at her home in Oldham, Greater Manchester on Friday

An exhausted Alex was carrying a skateboard, a flashlight and had a rucksack on his back when he was picked up by Fabien before being taken to police in Revel, near Toulouse.

READ MORE: The French region home to hippy communes ranging from conspiracy theorists to doomsday cults: Ariege, where Alex Batty has spent the last two years, is infamous for its ‘alternative’ lifestyle groups including one led by convicted paedophile

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.

‘He’s said to be intelligent even though he’s never been to school in this entire period,’ Leroy said.

Police sources said on Friday that a passport application for Alex was currently being ‘expedited’, ahead of his return to the country.

The teenager, who was ‘brainwashed’ by Melanie and David according to his family in England, was until now in the care of social services in Toulouse and has so far refused to say where exactly they were staying in their ‘spiritual commune’.

But Alex told investigators that he had spent time in a spiritual community centre focused on ‘work on the ego, meditation and reincarnation’, the prosecutor said. 

Alex’s cousin Stephen Devine said: ‘Alex’s mum was involved in a cult. His grandma became his guardian but then his mum Melissa and grandfather offered to take him on holiday for a week and they were never seen again.

‘It is going to be a big adjustment for him (to be home). He’s probably grown up without a formal education.’

Alex told Fabien that he now plans to go back to school to become an engineer, Afp reported. 

Susan Caruana said at the time of his disappearance that she believed her daughter and ex-husband, David, had taken him abroad after falling into a cult-like lifestyle.

Some of Alex’s friends on Facebook include people who appeared to live off-grid, practicing rituals, meditation and yoga. This is a picture one of them posted to social media

At a Press conference on Friday, Toulouse Assistant Public Prosecutor Antoine Leroy, who is leading the investigation in France, said Alex had told officers that after six years of travelling from Morocco to Spain and then on to France, it was his mother’s announcement that she was planning to move them to Finland that had prompted him to leave

Detectives from Greater Manchester Police flew out to the Ariege region in France this week, which is known for hippy camps, conspiracy theorists, sects and cults, to bring Alex back home.

The officers from GMP are not currently being sent out to join the hunt for his mother and grandfather, it is understood, with detectives liaising with their French counterparts on the ground. 

It is understood the community never stayed anywhere for more than a couple of weeks before moving on, living off the land and whatever money they could pull together.

The mayor of one rural hamlet in the Pyrenees, La Bastide, who knows the teenager, described Alex as a ‘happy and polite’ young man, but added: ‘He’ll be happy to be back with his grandmother.’

Rolande Alibert, 73, told the Mail: ‘He is a lovely young man, always polite and nice. He didn’t speak French, neither of them did, but they always said “Bonjour”.

‘We knew the boy as Zak and his grandfather as Peter, and it was only after I read about them in the newspaper that I learned the truth.’

She said he’d last seen Alex carrying a suitcase, but he hadn’t disclosed where he was going.

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