Alex Batty has spoken out for first time six years after he went missing, having been reunited with his family in the UK at the weekend.
Alex Batty, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was just 11 when he went missing in Spain in October 2017.
He had been on holiday in Marbella with mother Melanie, then 37, and grandfather David, who was 58.
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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 was finally found alive and well after turning up alone in Revel, near Toulouse, France, last week.
According to French prosecutors, he had to 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.
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Alex has now shared his first words since being discovered, having briefly addressed press earlier today.
After returning home from a shopping trip with a relative, he simply told reporters: “I’m glad to be home for Christmas."
The teenager then went back inside.
At the end of last week, French prosecutors shared details of where Alex has been for the past six years, after early enquiries suggested he was part of a 'spiritual community'.
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Toulouse Assistant Public Prosecutor Antoine Leroy explained to press: “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.”
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.”
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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.
“They believed in reincarnation.”
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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.
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.”
Jess Hardiman