British boy found in France after six years has video call with grandmother

A British boy who turned up in southern France this week six years after going missing has spoken to his grandmother via video call and she is sure it is really him, Greater Manchester police (GMP) have said.

Alex Batty, from Oldham, was 11 and under the guardianship of his grandmother Susan Caruana when he was allegedly abducted in 2017 by his mother, Melanie Batty, and grandfather, David Batty.

Ch Supt Phil Hutchinson, the district commander for Oldham, told reporters on Friday: “The young man and Alex’s grandmother spoke on a video call last night and, whilst she is content that this is indeed Alex, we obviously have further checks to do when he returns to the United Kingdom.”

He added: “Our main priority now is to see Alex returned home to his family in the UK and our investigation team are working around the clock with partner agencies and the French authorities to ensure they are all fully supported.

“Alex and his family remain our focus and we still have some work to do in establishing the full circumstances surrounding his disappearance and where he has been in all those years.

“I can only imagine the emotions they have experienced as a family throughout this ordeal.”

After his disappearance, Caruana said she believed her ex-partner and her daughter had run away with the boy because they wanted him to have “an alternative lifestyle”.

On Thursday, the French newspaper La Dépêche reported that officials had confirmed Batty, now 17, had turned up in the town of Revel, in southern France.

He used a motorist’s phone to message his grandmother in the UK via social media and wrote: “I love you, I want to come home,” the BBC reported.

On Thursday night, Alex’s aunt Maureen Batty, 73, from Nelson in Lancashire told the Mirror: “I am glad he has been found because we had no idea about where he has been for the last six or seven years. I am relieved that he is safe. He is coming home next week.

“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.

“I’ve been told that Alex said that he had escaped and he didn’t want to lead that lifestyle. So he is thinking straight on those lines. I just want to know the truth about what’s gone on. He is safe now.”