British justice decided Thursday to place Alex Batty, a 17-year-old teenager found near Toulouse six years after his disappearance, under protection until he reaches the age of majority in two months.
Since his return to the United Kingdom on the evening of Saturday December 16, his custody has been entrusted to his grandmother, who lives in the suburbs of Manchester, but under the supervision of the courts. “Alex is, quite understandably, frightened by the publicity surrounding his situation,” Judge Sarah Singleton told a hearing in Manchester.
An investigation still underway into his disappearance
The young man disappeared during a vacation in Spain with his mother and grandfather in 2017 and was found last Wednesday in the middle of the night by a delivery driver while walking along a road in Lauragais.
For six years, the teenager, his mother and his grandfather led a nomadic life, never staying more than a few months in the same place, first in Morocco then in the French Pyrenees.
An investigation into the circumstances of Alex Batty’s disappearance is underway in the United Kingdom.