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British and French officials said Friday that Alex Batty, the British teen who was found this week in France after having been missing since 2017, will likely return home to Britain in the next few days.
Batty was 11 when he traveled to Malaga, Spain, with his mother, Melanie Batty, and grandfather, David Batty, in October 2017 for what was expected to be a short family vacation. They never returned to Britain.
The mother and grandfather, who were not Alex's legal guardians, had been wanted in connection with the disappearance since that time.
In the very early hours of Wednesday, a delivery driver spotted a young man walking alone along a rural road in southern France, outside the city of Toulouse. The young man was later identified as Alex Batty.
At a news conference Friday in Toulouse, deputy prosecutor Antoine Leroy told reporters that Batty - who did not speak French - was able to convey to the driver through another person who he was, and that he had been missing and wanted protection.
The prosecutor said that over the past six years, Batty had traveled and lived with his mother and grandfather in Morocco, then Spain, and finally the Pyrenees mountains in the south of France.
He said Batty had described a nomadic existence, traveling from place to place, but each time living in what were described as "spiritual communities" and staying in large houses where several families lived. He said they traveled with their own solar panels and a vegetable garden.
The prosecutor said Batty never described incidents of physical abuse and was never confined or locked up. At the same time, he said the young man was forced to live in the conditions he described and was never provided access to any formal education.
He also said Batty had difficulty identifying specific locations where the family stayed.
The prosecutor said the grandfather is believed to have died about six months ago. The mother was planning to move to Finland, at which time, he said, Batty decided it was time to part company.
The prosecutor - in coordination with British officials - said Batty, who is originally from Oldham, just outside the northern British city of Manchester, will be returned to Britain as early as Saturday. According to a police statement, he has already spoken with his maternal grandmother, Susan Caruana, who is his legal guardian.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.