A young Englishman missing for six years reveals the details of his escape. Alex Batty, now 17, is tired of constantly moving and working with his grandfather in exchange for food and shelter.

Alex Batty, a young Englishman found in France six years after disappearing in Spain, told the details of his escape in an interview with a British newspaper. Sun. The child disappeared at the age of 11 along with his mother and grandfather while on holiday in southern Spain.

On December 14, after the minor was found in a mountainous area, he told authorities that he had been in France for two years. Alex, now 17, was healthy and insisted he had not suffered any abuse.

In an interview published this Friday, the young man explained that he had argued with his mother and walked 35 kilometers until he came across a courier who took him to the police station and allowed him to use his personal mobile phone to contact his grandmother and legal guardian. .

The child is tired of constantly moving and working with his grandfather in exchange for food and housing. During the six years of absence, Alex met only his Spanish friend in a cafe and never went to school. “No friends, no social life. Work, work and no study. It was life with my mother (…) I love her, but she is a bad mother,” he emphasized.

At the age of 14, the minor began to doubt this lifestyle and thought about leaving his family. “I realized that this is not the best way to live for my future. The cloud cleared because I started weighing everything again, namely the pros and cons of living in England,” he detailed.

According to the young man, his 43-year-old mother “wasn’t open to other opinions” and his 64-year-old grandfather wanted Alex to take a “better path.”

This version coincides with that of Frederic Amby and Ingrid Beauvais, owners of a hotel in Camp-sur-l’Agli, France. They indicated on Sunday that they knew the young man as Zach and had cared for him for various periods of time starting in late 2021.

“The first time Zach/Alex arrived, he was accompanied by his grandfather and mother. He stayed with us for certain weeks, helping with the garden and kitchen in exchange for shelter and food,” they said in a quoted statement. British press.

The owners considered the young man “part of the family” and encouraged him to “learn French and study”, giving him “free access to the Internet and the ability to come and go as he pleases”.

“He left several times to join his mother in different places of residence (…) The last time we saw Zach/Alex was earlier this summer,” they detailed.

The young man lived in a rented room with his mother in Aude, in the south of France. On December 11, he fled at night with the goal of reaching Toulouse, the nearest city.

Three days later, when police identified him, Alex lied to protect his mother and grandfather and said he had been on a four-day trek in the mountains. “I’m not lost. I just didn’t want to go back, so the story seemed true,” he admitted. The police took his fingerprints, and at that moment he thought that “he shouldn’t have said anything.”

The minor returned to the UK on Sunday and was reunited with his grandmother and legal guardian. British authorities want to question him to find out the whereabouts of his mother and grandfather.