British teen ‘abducted’ by mother years ago to be repatriated from France
Al Jazeera
Alex Batty, who went missing aged 11 during a holiday in Spain, has been found in France after six years of nomadism.
A British teenager who went missing six years ago and was found this week in France is set to be reunited with his family in the United Kingdom.
Alex Batty, who was “abducted” by his mother at the age of 11, will be repatriated on Saturday, a prosecutor in Toulouse told the AFP news agency.
He will take off for London from the southern French city “accompanied by several British police officers”, said magistrate Antoine Leroy.
Batty will be returned to his maternal grandmother, with whom the British justice system entrusted his custody before he disappeared in 2017 during a holiday with his mother and grandfather in Malaga, Spain.
Toulouse deputy prosecutor Antoine Leroy said on Friday the youth had spent the past two years in different areas of southern France, living in “spiritual communities” with his mother, never staying more than several months in the same place.
