the teenager expresses the reasons for his flight in an interview with the “Sun”

Alex Batty admitted to having lied to the French gendarmes about the conditions of his escape. The 17-year-old British boy, found in France last week, agreed for the first time to respond to journalists from the Sun. He explains in particular that he invented the story according to which he had walked four days through the Aude mountains. He wanted to slow down the work of investigators. He told them that his mother and grandfather were in Finland for fear of being arrested.

Deprived of school

In the interview, Alex Batty also reveals the reasons for his escape. Deprived of school since his kidnapping in 2017, the teenager could no longer stand the nomadic life imposed by his mother, whom he describes as anti-vax and anti-system. “I was safe. I was always healthy, but I had no social life”, he explains in particular. Last July, he tried to join a school in Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales), to take computer courses. During his registration interview, the director found him confused.