British teenager Alex Batty could have been found five months ago with his still missing 'kidnapper' mother, but French police were on strike and apparently failed to take action, it emerged today.
The extraordinary revelations came on Thursday after 17-year-old Alex returned home to Oldham, Greater Manchester, six years after his abduction.
His mother and alleged kidnapper, 48-year-old Melanie Batty, is still on the run.
She allegedly forced him to live in a traveling “spiritual community” rather than return to his legal guardian – his grandmother, Susan Caruana, 68.
It has now emerged that Alex and a woman appeared at the prestigious IT university in Perpignan, in the south of France, last July.
Alex, from Oldham, was 11 when he failed to return from a holiday to Spain with his mother Melanie in 2017. He has now returned to Britain after six years
Teachers at Ecole 42 (School 42) were impressed with his online application, which included passing a computer exam 'with flying colours'. But there were concerns about his profile, especially because he used false personal information.
“He gave his name as Zack Edwards,” said Marie Payré, administrative director of Ecole 42. “He told us by email that an airline had lost his identification papers.”
When Alex arrived in Perpignan, “we started to get an idea of what was going on,” Ms. Payré told radio station France Bleu.
At that point Alex said, “Zack Edwards is just a nickname, my real name is Alex Batty.”
Géro Vigney, the director of Ecole 42, then realized that his potential student was a wanted child, and that his mother was on the run.
Mr Vigney handed over all details to police, including the address where Alex 'stayed with the woman who accompanied him'.
“It didn't happen like it did in the movies,” Mr. Vigney said.
'When I arrived at the police station it was in the middle of a national police strike, so I was asked to return at 3pm.
“I think everyone has been faced with a situation they shouldn't have been in, but it kind of annoyed me because we're still talking about a minor who's been missing for six years!”
A police chief eventually took Mr Vigney's statement by telephone, with Mr Vigney saying: 'I gave him all the information, even the address of the lodge where he was staying with the woman who had accompanied him.
'I was told the investigation was ongoing and that we would be kept informed, but we have not heard anything since July.'
Alex Batty (pictured left) with his mother Melanie (centre) and grandfather David six years ago
International police agency Interpol has been involved in the increasingly complicated case since Alex went missing while on holiday to Spain in 2017.
He was with his mother at the time, as well as his paternal grandfather, David Batty, who would now be 64.
It is said that Mr Batty died six months ago, but even that theory is now being questioned.
Mr Batty's death has not been reported and neighbors in the hamlet of La Bastide, near Carcassonne, where they once lived, said they had seen him looking fit and well over the past two weeks.
Greater Manchester Police flew to south-west France to pick up Alex – who turned himself into a gendarme last Wednesday after a delivery man picked him up at the side of a rural road – but were unable to assist the French in the investigation for diplomatic reasons. search for Mr and Mrs Batty.
A French source said: 'The British are now leading the investigation, and they will of course interview Alex in detail. His mother is crucial to the investigation and she must be found.'
The spiritual community of Garden of Eden, where Melanie Batty lived in France
A tent in the woods in the 'Garden of Eden' 'spiritual community' near Chalabre, Aude
The search area in France alone is a huge swath of the Pyrenean countryside that is extremely popular with spiritual communities, sects, sects and hippies.
It is clear that the community to which the Battys belonged never stayed anywhere for more than two weeks before moving on, living off the land and whatever money they could scrape together.
When contacted about the latest developments in the case, Jean-David Cavaillé, the public prosecutor of Perpignan, said: “The police officers have filed a report with the public prosecutor's office on duty and the facts have been reported to the Quillan gendarmerie.”
Quillan is close to where Alex is believed to have stayed in France.