French officials have revealed details of the life Alex Batty was living before being found by a lorry driver, saying the teenager spoke about being part of a 'spiritual community'.
Alex Batty, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was just 11 when he went missing in Spain in October 2017.
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He had been on holiday in Marbella with mother Melanie, then 37, and grandfather David, who was 58.
At the time, the pair had been prohibited from being with Alex because of domestic difficulties, and were due to return after two weeks. However, they never came back.
Alex has now been found alive and well after turning up alone in Revel, near Toulouse, France.
Fabien Accidini, the driver who rescued him, said that the youngster had told him he was ‘kidnapped’ by his mum, who he described as ‘a little crazy’, and spent three years in Spain, followed by two years in France.
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French prosecutors have now shared details of where Alex has been for the past six years, after early enquiries suggested he was part of a 'spiritual community'.
Toulouse Assistant Public Prosecutor Antoine Leroy told reporters: “He doesn’t describe any kind of physical violence, without talking about emotional violence.
“We can’t use the term ‘sect’ as such but he talks of a spiritual community.”
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He continued: “The mother experienced a sort of fear of solar panels, so they were travelling from house to house with solar panels.
“They only used car-sharing, they didn’t have their own vehicle.”
Leroy added: “What I’m describing is what happened in Morocco, in Spain and in France - it was always the same way of living.”
Leroy said ‘they would work on the ego’, explaining: “There was meditation work - there was no connection with the real world.
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“They believed in reincarnation.”
Commenting on Alex’s condition, he said that doctors who examined him described him as ‘tired’ but otherwise in overall good health.
“He’s said to be intelligent even though he’s never been to school in this entire period,” Leroy said.
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Alex knew his unorthodox lifestyle ‘had to stop’ after his mother announced her intention to move to Finland.
“When his mother indicated that she was going to leave with him to Finland, this young man understood that this had to stop,” Leroy went on.
“So he then decided to leave the place where he was with his mother and he went walking for four days and four nights.
“He was exclusively walking at night and sleeping in the day.”
Alex would eat ‘whatever he found in the fields’ as he walked for four days in the Pyrenees, before being found by a young man at 3am on Wednesday (13 December).
Topics: News, UK News, Alex Batty
Jess Hardiman