Missing boy Alex Batty returns to the UK

– Matt Boyle of Manchester Police said in a press conference: “It gives me great pleasure to now tell you that Alex has returned to the UK after six years.”

Patti, 11, went on holiday to Spain in 2017 with his grandfather and mother, who did not have custody of him. Since then he has been missing – until now.

On Thursday, the boy was discovered by a motorist – Walking in the rain along a country road near Toulouse in southern France. When driver Fabian Oxedini searched online and saw that Alex Paty had been reported missing, he called the police and let the boy borrow a phone.

“Hello grandma, it’s me, Alex. I’m Toulouse in France. I really hope you get this message. I love you and want to come home,” the 17-year-old wrote to his grandmother, who is his guardian.

French investigators have since tried to map out what Alex Paty’s life was like. According to the boy himself, he, his mother, and his grandfather lived a wandering life in recent years near the Pyrenees in southern France. It is said that he did not attend school.

It is unclear where Alex Batey is The mother was found and the grandfather was believed to have died six months ago.

According to French authorities, the boy finally decided to “restore his life in the United Kingdom” after his mother expressed plans to move with him to Finland.

– Then he decided to leave the place where he was with his mother and walked and walked for four days and four nights, says Antoine Leroy, in the prosecutor’s office in Toulouse.

In a statement, the boy’s grandmother, Susan Caruana, expressed her great joy and relief that he was found to be in good health:

“I spoke to him last night and it was so lovely to hear his voice and see his face again. I can’t bear to see him when we meet again.”