British teenager missing for six years, then found near Toulouse, was repatriated to London

A six-year-old disappearance is nearing its conclusion. Alex Batty, the British teenager who disappeared for six years before being found in France on December 13, took off for the United Kingdom on Saturday December 16 at 5:04 p.m., the Toulouse deputy prosecutor told AFP.

The 17-year-old young man is “accompanied by members of the British police services” during his journey from Toulouse to London, said the magistrate. He will then be returned to his maternal grandmother, to whom British justice had entrusted his custody before his mother kidnapped him in 2017 during a vacation in Spain.

The young man had led a life for six years “nomadic” within a community “spiritual”. He was found in the middle of the night by a delivery driver after he had escaped and been walking along a road for four days, the deputy prosecutor said during a press conference Friday evening. He is in good health, appears to be of “sharp intelligence” and does not appear to have suffered any abuse during the six years that his kidnapping lasted. The mother, untraceable to date, could currently be in Finland, the magistrate indicated.