Living in plain sight... missing Alex in France
ONE picture shows him cycling on a disused railway line and another smiling in front of a computer screen at a school.
These are the first pictures of Alex Batty living in plain sight in France.
They come after the teenager spoke for the first time of his ‘off-grid lifestyle’ for the last six years after he disappeared with his mother Melanie and grandfather David.
Speaking to The Sun earlier this week, he said of his parent: ‘She’s a great person and I love her but she’s just not a great mum.’
The pictures, obtained exclusively by MailOnline, come from the owners of a French farmhouse where Alex stayed during the time he was missing abroad.
One was taken in June at a prestigious IT secondary school in Perpignan, south-east France, where computer enthusiast Alex tried to enrol as a pupil. Teachers at Ecole 42 were impressed with his application but alarm bells rang after he first gave them the false name of Zack Edwards – and eventually his real name. Stunned staff found out who he was by searching him online.
Headteacher Gero Vigney alerted police but they were on strike that day. And one of the farmhouse’s owners Ingrid Beauve told how she had been ‘delighted’ to take in Alex
– who she knew as Zack. He would often stay there with his grandfather, who they knew as Peter.
Ms Beauve said: ‘Zack or Alex had a wonderful time when he stayed with us... He left us earlier this month and then we saw his face all over the media.’
Alex flew back to Manchester last weekend and is being looked after by his grandmother Susan Caruana, his legal guardian. He never returned from a trip to Spain in 2017 and instead lived an itinerant lifestyle before being taken to a ‘spiritual community’ in the Pyrenees.
He told The Sun he walked 22 miles over two days this month, before being spotted by a delivery driver who picked him up and alerted authorities. Greater Manchester Police has launched a criminal probe into his disappearance.