Alex Batty ran away from the commune where he lived because his mother told him they had to move to Finland

Alex Batty, the minor located in the south of France and who had been missing for six years, made the decision to leave his mother when she told him that they had to move to Finland, as explained in a press conference by the deputy prosecutor of Toulouse, Antoine Leroy.

Leroy explained that Alex, his mother and his grandfather were in Spain and then in Morocco, before leading a nomadic lifestyle in towns in the French Pyrenees.

That is until this month Alex decided to escape and return to his grandmother in Oldham, United Kingdom.. To do this, he walked for four days before being found by a young French driver who handed him over to the authorities when he knew they were looking for him.. In those days, the teenager who disappeared after a trip to Spain when he was 11 years old, mainly walked at night and slept during the day.

The now teenager told the French authorities that the family traveled in a community “with ten people at a time” and that he was never enrolled in school. According to the prosecutor, Alex expresses himself correctly and looks like a normal teenager.. They went to big houses where there were already other families, coming and going, of different nationalities: Canadians, Indians.. The “ego” worked in them, but also meditation. However, the French prosecutor's office considers that the minor's living environment in recent years cannot be described as that of a sect, but rather an itinerant spiritual commune.

During this homeless life with his mother and maternal grandfather, he explains that he never experienced abuse in the communities in which he lived.. But he has admitted that “he would have suffered sexual assault when he was little,” according to the deputy prosecutor.. This Friday, Alex Batty was “tired” but in general “is in good health” and has proven to be “quite intelligent” despite his social isolation.

According to investigations by the Prosecutor's Office, the mother had an unstable character and Alex's grandfather may have died six months ago, something that Alex attributes to a ceremony that took place in the community around that time.

French Police confirmed the identity of Alex Batty in images that had been made available internationally. However, some media suggest that the agents failed in November when the minor tried to enroll in a school in the town of Quillan and was taken to the police station, reports the newspaper La Depeche.

The minor, who at the time he was located was carrying 100 euros and was destined for Toulouse, could return to the United Kingdom this Saturday, but the prosecutor has declined to give more details to guarantee his safety.

Asked if there is an international arrest warrant for his mother, Mel Batty, the prosecutor answered that there is not one, and that the minor was unable to say exactly where he was because he did not know.