French couple who took in missing Alex Batty say he was ‘part of their family’

Alex Batty had spent the last couple of years staying with the family at their farm

On Thursday, French authorities said that a teenager answering to the name of Alex Batty, from Oldham, had handed himself at a police station near Toulouse. 

The boy had gone missing in Spain back in 2017 after going there on holiday with his mum Melanie and grandfather David, neither of whom were his legal guardian. 

When none of the family returned home from the holiday in Marbella, police opened an investigation.

Alex handed himself into police in Revel, near Toulouse, after ‘escaping a spiritual rural community’ in the Pyrenees. He had been walking for four days before he was picked up by a concerned delivery driver Fabien Accidini.

He has now returned to the UK for the first time since he was 11.

It has since emerged that the now-17-year-old had spent the last two years staying at a remote farm in Camps-sur-l'Agly after he was taken there by his mum and grandad.

The couple who looked after him have released a statement explaining how he came to be in their care.

Frederic Hambye and Ingrid Beauve claimed they had been told the boy's name was Zach and were unaware of his true identity, the BBC reports.

They said his mother did not stay at the farmhouse because she was "looking for a place to live" in a spiritual community, while Alex stayed "on and off" at the property in the Pyrenees mountains.

Their statement said: "He stayed with us for some longer or shorter periods. He left several times to join his mother in her successive places of residence between Aude and Ariege."

The couple agreed to give him accommodation, and said he would often do chores around the house and "loved to cook."

They added that he got along well with their children and would join them on trips to the beach and cycling journeys.

"As time went on we saw him as part of our family and we think he appreciated the stability and security we represented for him," the couple said.

They gave him his own room and said he was "completely free to come and go as he pleased."

The couple encouraged him to learn French and wanted to get him back into school.

"He was eager to go to school and get back to a normal life – and for that he needed his ID which he told us he no longer had," they explained.

"When we learned that he did not have an ID, we offered to drive him to the British consulate.

“He told us he would find a way to return to the UK on his own to get new [identity] papers and go back to school. To this end, he told us, he left to join his mother.”

They told him he "would always be welcome" and "if needed, we were there to help him", adding: "We wish him the best of luck."

It is not known where Melanie is, but French prosecutors have said she may be in Finland.

David is believed to have passed away six months ago, according to reports.

Following his disappearance in 2017, Alex's grandmother Susan Caruana, who is his legal guardian, said Alex’s mum and grandad had taken Alex to live an “alternative lifestyle” with him in a spiritual community in Morocco,

She said: “They didn’t want [Alex] to go to school, they don’t believe in mainstream school.”

Related links:

Alex Batty’s family speak out after he’s found in France six years after going missing