Alex Batty, the boy found in France, tells everything in an interview with The Sun and admits having lied: “I’m happy”

Alex Batty, the British teenager who disappeared six years ago in Spain and was found a week ago in France, explained in an interview published this Friday that he decided to abandon his mother and return to his country because I wanted a better “future”. and admitted having invented part of his story.

Batty revealed in an interview with The Sun that he lied about the details of his escape to protect his mother and grandfather from the police.

The teenager – with a still childish face, reddish and slightly curly hair – confessed in the interview that he was I felt happy, I was healthy and I appreciated the return of the cold, upon returning to his native Manchester. “They know I like the cold, so I’m happy about it,” she said.

“If (my mother and grandfather) watch (the interview), if my grandfather manages to turn on an electronic device (laughs), I tell them that I love him, I regret having left him, but it was necessary for my future”, he added.

He said he made up a story about a four-day trip through mountain roads, hoping for this This would prevent officers from locating them.

The teenager was found walking in France six years after he disappeared in Spain.

Batty said he doubts the nomadic lifestyle of his mother and grandfather They started when he was “14 or 15”.

Alex, 17, disappeared while in Spain with his mother…who was not his legal guardian— and his grandfather in October 2017, and a week ago he was located on a road in southern France. He was found walking alone on a dark, rainy night on a remote mountain road by a medicine delivery man to whom he enthusiastically told a story that Part of it was a lie.

Future ambitions to study at university prompted his decision to abandon his lifestyle in the French Pyrenees, he said.

Back in the care of his grandmother in Oldham, Manchester, Alex spoke at length about his escape and what made him leave.

“I have I lied to try to protect my mother and grandfather, but I realize they will probably get caught anyway,” he told the Sun.

“I didn’t miss it. “I knew exactly where I was going,” she added, describing her journey as a two day walk, first to the town of Quillan to pretend to ask for directions and then to Toulouse.

Six years from now to there

He spent six years leading an itinerant life with his mother and grandfather, within a spiritual community.

“I understood It wasn’t a good way to live for my future.“, the teenager, who is once again under the legal guardianship of his grandmother, told the Sun.

“You go from one side to the other. No friends, no social life. Work, work, work and not study. “This is the life I imagined I would lead if I had stayed with my mother,” he said.

The teenager told French investigators that he lived in a “spiritual community” and this He never stayed in the same place for more than a few months.

“My mom is not a great mother”

“She’s an amazing person and I love her, but she’s not a great mother“Batty told the Sun, referring to her mother, Melanie Batty.

His mother had done it “Anti-government and anti-vaccine” positions. and she didn’t want to “become a slave to the system,” she added. One night she decided to leave after arguing with her.

The young man admitted that he had invented that he had been walking in the mountains for four days when they found him. In reality he traveled about 30 kilometers.

“I lied to try to protect my mother and grandfather,” said the teenager, who would like to become a computer engineer.