British teenager Alex Batty has revealed he lied about the details of his escape to protect his mother and grandfather from police.
In an interview with The Sun, Alex said doubts about the nomadic lifestyle they kept began when he was “14 or 15 years old”. The teen said future ambitions led him to abandon the nomadic lifestyle in the French Pyrenees.
He was found walking along a road in France six years after going missing. Back in the care of his legal guardian, his grandmother in Oldham, Alex has spoken extensively about the night of his escape and what drove him to leave.
Already present feelings of doubt grew stronger a year ago, he told the tabloid, as his dreams of becoming a software engineer felt far away.
“I realised it wasn't a great way to live for my future,” he said. The life he could foresee if he stayed with his mum involved “moving around, no friends, no social life. Working, working, work and not studying,” the 17-year-old said, describing a socially isolated adolescence.
A year ago, he raised the idea of returning to England with his grandfather, who he said was alive when he escaped earlier this month despite French police speculation he may have died months ago.
He opted not to consult his mother as he said she was against his plans to go back to England, fearing he would be put in care if he returned.
“She wasn't really open to any other opinions whereas grandad is more of a listener,” Alex said. He told the paper he fabricated the story about a four-day journey, hoping it would stop police being able to track his mother and grandfather down, fearing they could be arrested on suspicion of child abduction.
“I've been lying to try and protect my mum and grandad but I realise that they're probably gonna get caught anyway,” he told the Sun.
“I didn't get lost. I knew exactly where I was going,” he added, describing his true journey as a two-day hike, first to the town of Quillan to pretend to ask for directions, then on towards Toulouse.
Alex was picked up by a delivery driver who spotted him on a road in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, near Toulouse in the early hours of a rainy morning. The driver, French pharmaceutical student Fabien Accidini, said Alex told him he had been walking in the Pyrenees for four days and four nights, sleeping by day and walking mainly by night to escape being seen.
All he had was €100 in cash, no mobile phone and he was heading for Toulouse, and he fed on anything he could find in fields and gardens, Mr Accidini has previously said.
He drove the teenager to Revel, just outside Carcassonne, and left him with local gendarmes who checked his identity and took him to Toulouse before his journey back to the UK was arranged. Alex's grandmother, Susan Caruana told the BBC in 2018 that she believed Alex's mother Melanie Batty and grandfather David Batty had taken him to live with a spiritual community in Morocco.
She said at the time they were seeking an alternative lifestyle and did not want Alex to go to school. Melanie and David Batty left Greater Manchester with Alex for a pre-agreed week-long holiday to Marbella in Spain on 30 September 2017.
He was last seen at the Port of Malaga on 8 October that year, the day they were expected to return to the UK. In his interview with the Sun, Alex said he was anxious after he “blurted out” his semi-false story to the delivery driver and was taken to a police station.
“I thought, ‘Oh Zack, what have you done',” he said, referencing the false name he used abroad. The reunion with his UK family was emotional.
Alex said he was “so happy” to see his other grandfather and was “shaking” when he was reunited with his grandmother. The teenager said he has ambitions to go to college, continuing to learn French and study computer science.
“I'm going to be busy studying and catching up,” he said.
— CutC by bbc.com
