A BRIT teen missing for six years fled a French hippy cult and spent four days hiking through mountains in a bid to get hold of a UK ID card.
Alex Batty dreamt of working in Canada with computers but needed the documents to be able to study at a school in France.
PAAlex spent four days hiking through mountains in a bid to get hold of a UK ID card[/caption]
Doug SeeburgThe remote holiday gite [cottage] in the hamlet of La Bastide where Alex lived[/caption]
He had been trekking through the Pyrenees for four days when a delivery driver found him last week.
As Alex, 17, was reunited with his gran and legal guardian over the weekend, more details of his life since he vanished aged 11 have emerged.
He had been living at a remote holiday gite [cottage] in the hamlet of La Bastide with Frédéric Hambye and Ingrid Beauve.
Alex had arrived there with mum Melanie, 43, and grandad David, 64, in 2021.
He left Britain with them in 2017 for what was supposed to be a week’s holiday near Marbella on Spain’s Costa del Sol.
Yesterday, Fred and Ingrid revealed that they knew Alex as Zach.
They posted on the Gite de La Bastide Facebook page: “You may have met Zach and found that he was part of the family, that he had plans to study computer science and work in Canada.
“He was eager to go to school and get back to a normal life and for that, he needed his ID, which he told us he no longer had.
“When we learned that he did not have an ID, we offered to drive him to the British Consulate.
“He told us that he would find a way to return to the UK on his own to get new papers and go back to school.
“To this end, he told us, he left on December 10 to join his mother.
“We reiterated to him that he would always be welcome and that if needed, we were there to help him.
“The rest, as well as his real name and full story, we discovered in the Press at the beginning of this week. We wish him the best of luck.”
Alex lived on and off at the remote gite where his grandad worked as a handyman in exchange for food and accommodation.
Mum Melanie was part of a nomadic “spiritual community” in the Ariege and Aude region.
The lad would often meet her at the Sunday hippy market in Espéraza, where Alex enjoyed a tuna baguette.
Thierry Strub, who works there, described him as “a very nice boy.”
Alex also “loved to cook”, Fred and Ingrid said, and would make beef stew, chocolate cake, pasta bolognese and veggie dishes.
They said he was “careful and keen to participate in the life of the gite” where he had his own room.
They continued: “He was also part of our family and had good relations with our kids.
“We enjoyed time together in the summer, cycling, visiting the beach and river.
“The last time Zach/Alex came back to us was at the beginning of this summer.
“As time went on, we saw him as part of our family and we think he appreciated the stability and security we represent for him.”
He also had unlimited internet access but is not believed to have raised the alarm about his whereabouts.
On Saturday night, Alex was reunited with gran Susan Caruana, 68, in Oldham.
A source said: “All Susan has ever wanted was to see and hold Alex again. She last saw him as a boy so it was a bit of a shock to welcome him back as a strapping 17-year-old.
“But the minute she saw him she knew it was him and they held each other tightly and the tears flowed.”
Alex is also set for further talks with Greater Manchester Police to discuss the last six years and whether he has been the victim of crime.
FACEBOOK/UNPIXSAlex with mum Melanie, 43, and grandad David, 64[/caption]
The Brit boy had been living at the gite with Frédéric Hambye and Ingrid Beauve, above