Alex Batty’s message to his grandmother that revealed he’d escaped | UK News

Kidnapped teenager Alex Batty tried to tell his grandmother ‘I love you’ as he fled a suspected ‘spiritual commune’ in France, it has emerged.

The 17-year-old from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was found trudging through heavy rain near the southern French city of Toulouse by a student chiropractor who happened to be driving past in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The student, Fabien Accidini, says Alex told him he had been walking for four days after leaving his mum and granddad at their ‘community’ somewhere in the French countryside.

One of the first things Alex did after revealing his story to Fabien was to use his rescuer’s phone to send a Facebook message to his gran, Susan Caruana.

He reportedly wrote: ‘Hello grandma it is me Alex I am in France Toulouse I really hope that you receive this message I love you I want to come home.’

Ms Caruana, who is Alex’s legal guardian, may not have seen the message until after he reached the care of French authorities.

Fabien said of his encounter with the boy: ‘He was thirsty since he had been walking for several days, so I gave him some water.

‘When he explained his situation to me, I gave him my phone because he never had a means of communication.

‘He sent a message to his grandmother from my Facebook. Unfortunately she didn’t respond. Initially, Alex wanted to go to a big city to find help and go to an embassy. But finally, I explained to him that the gendarmes could pick him up.’

Alex was allegedly taken to join a commune in Spain while on a holiday in the country with his mum and her father in 2017, when he was 11 years old.

Greater Manchester Police want to speak with Alex’s mum, Melanie, and grandfather, David, in connection with his abduction.

Both were prohibited from being with the boy at the time of their holiday to Spain due to domestic difficulties.

They were due to return from their trip to Spain after two weeks but never returned.

Alex’s grandmother speculated that they had settled into ‘an alternative lifestyle’ somewhere.

Fabien said Alex had told him that his mother was ‘a little crazy’ but insisted that she had never imprisoned him and that he could ‘leave when he wanted’. 

‘He had no animosity towards his mother but he really wanted to find his grandmother. He really missed his loved ones,’ the student said.

Ms Caruana told The Times on Thursday: ‘I spoke to him this afternoon and it is definitely him. I was speaking to a boy when he was with us and now I’m speaking to a man.

‘I’m hoping he will return next week. I wish we didn’t have the weekend upon us. It’s quite unbelievable when you don’t know if somebody’s dead or alive.’

Greater Manchester Police have since said they expect Alex to be returned ‘over the next few days’.

In a press conference on Friday, Assistant Chief Constable Chris Sykes pushed back on ‘speculation’ over the boy’s recent whereabouts, adding: ‘We have no detail of where he’s been. We want to speak to Alex.’

ACC Sykes told reporters: ‘The young man and Alex’s grandmother spoke on a video call last night and whilst she is content that this is indeed Alex, we obviously have further checks to do when he returns to the United Kingdom.’

‘Alex and his family remain our focus and we still have some work to do in establishing the full circumstances surrounding his disappearance and where he has been in all those years.

‘I can only imagine the emotions they have experienced as a family throughout this ordeal.’

‘I would ask that they be granted privacy as they come to terms with what’s happened and they try to move forward together as a family to come to terms with what’s happened.’

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