French prosecutors said on the 14th that a British boy who disappeared in Spain six years ago was found in the mountains of France a few days ago and was in good health. The UK** is leading the investigation.
The boy's name is Alex Barty, 17 years old, from the town of Oldham in Greater Manchestershire, England. According to Greater Manchester**, Barty, then 11, left the UK in September 2017 to travel to Spain with his mother and grandfather. When they were scheduled to return to China in October of the same year, the whereabouts of the three were unknown.
According to the French newspaper "Telegraph", at around 2 a.m. on the 13th of this month, Fabian Arcidini, a medical student in Toulouse, found Barty while driving to deliver medicine in the town of Le Veis, east of Toulouse. It was raining heavily, and Barty was walking along the road in the foothills of the Pyrenees in a white sweater, backpack, skateboard, and flashlight.
Archidini invited him to the bus out of fear, but found that he didn't speak French very well, so she switched to English to communicate with him. The two chatted for more than three hours. Barty said he had been walking in the nearby mountains for more than four days and wanted to go back to England. He also used Arcidini's mobile phone to log in to social media and send messages to his legal guardian, his grandmother Susan Caruana, who has divorced her grandfather.
Acidini took him to the police station. ** Contacted his UK counterpart and confirmed Barty's identity. A medical examination was arranged for him.
A spokesman for the Greater Manchester Police Service in the UK said: "This is a complex and long-term investigation and we need to investigate further and take appropriate protective measures. ”
According to Barty, his grandmother allowed him to follow his mother and grandfather to Spain for a vacation in 2017 due to his poor health and inability to travel with him. Subsequently, he lived with his mother in a large house with about 10 people for about three years, and in France for about two years, living in a mobile community. He found his mother a little strange, but he didn't hate her, but he didn't want this kind of life, hoping to "live a normal life and see his grandmother", so he decided to leave.
According to the account, the neighborhood mentioned by Barty is a place that many European escapists looking for a different way of living a life yearn for. ** Suspicion that Barty may not have received the education and health care services he deserved there.
Caruana was overjoyed to learn of Barty's whereabouts. "I talked to him and he was fine," she said. ”
According to the BBC, Barty is currently staying at a juvenile centre in Toulouse, waiting for British police and consular staff to pick him up on his home country. His mother and grandfather are currently missing and remain wanted in connection with his disappearance. (END) (Wang Xinfang).