６年不明の英少年が一時滞在、フランスの小村に残る衝撃

【カンシュルラグリー（フランス）ＡＦＰ＝時事】フランス南部の山間部にある村の住民は、「ザック」呼ばれていた礼儀正しい少年が、２０１７年から６年間行方不明となっていた英国の少年だったことをいまだに信じられずにいる。（写真は仏カンシュルラグリーにある、アレックス・バティさんと祖父が滞在していた宿泊所）
　ピレネー山脈の麓のカンシュルラグリー村にある、少年と祖父が滞在していたとされる宿泊所近くに住む男性（７９）は、「思いも寄らなかった」と驚きを示した。
　「善い人々だった。少年は私たちが車で通り掛かると、よくあいさつをした。おじいさんは、壁の修理をするなど、よく働いていた」と話した。
　英国人のアレックス・バティさん（１７）は、１１歳だった６年前にスペインで行方不明になり、先週フランスで発見された。
　警察は、親権を持たない母親のメラニーさんと祖父のデービッドさんが、スペイン旅行に行くと言いアレックスさんを連れ出したとみている。
　デービッドさんは半年前に亡くなり、メラニーさんが今度はフィンランドに行くと言い出したため、アレックスさんは逃げ出そうと決意。４日間山中を歩き、１３日午前３時、車で通り掛かった配達員に発見・保護された。
　アレックスさんは１６日、祖母が住む英国に帰国した。英メディアによると、祖母がアレックスさんの法廷後見人となっている。
　■「スピリチュアルな共同体」
　アレックスさんは捜査官に対し、「スピリチュアルな共同体」の一員として、スペインおよびモロッコで過ごした後、フランスに渡ったと明かしている。
　人口数十人のカンシュルラグリーで宿泊所を営む男性らの話では、アレックスさんが初めて滞在したのは２０２１年の後半だった。
　宿泊所近くに住む女性（６１）は、同年１０月にメラニーさんに会い、メラニーさんと祖父は陰謀論者だと感じたと語っている。新型コロナウイルスに感染したと話した際には、メラニーさんはそんな感染症は存在しないと指摘したという。
　女性はメラニーさんについて、「スピリチュアルな共同体」を求めていたものの、既存の共同体に属するというよりは、メラニーさん自身が共同体を率いようとしていたとみている。
　一方でアレックスさんについては、「とても良い少年で、親しみやすく親切、礼儀正しくて健康的だった」と形容し、「その裏に奇妙な物語があるなど、知りようもなかった」と語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/12/21-18:18）

Residents in a mountainous village in southern France still can't believe the polite young boy they knew as Zach was in fact Alex Batty, a British teenager who had been missing since 2017.
We had no idea, said Camps-sur-l'Agly resident Roger Vales, 79, who lives near the guesthouse where 17-year-old Batty and his grandfather appear to have stayed.
They were nice people. The boy, when we drove past, we'd see him and say hello. And the grandpa, we'd often spot him working, fixing up walls, the local council member said.
Alex Batty, who went missing six years ago as a 11-year-old, resurfaced in the middle of the night last week when a driver picked him up in a mountainous area of southern France.
Police suspect his mother, Melanie Batty -- who did not have parental guardianship -- and grandfather David Batty of having abducted him in 2017, under the pretence of going on holiday in Spain.
A French deputy prosecutor said it was believed the young boy spent two of those six years in France.
He is thought to have first stayed in Camps-sur-l'Agly, a tiny village that is home to several dozen people and some cows in the foothills of the Pyrenees.
Frederic Hambye and Ingrid Beauve, two Belgians who own the La Bastide guesthouse in the village, have said that Alex Batty first stayed with them in late 2021.
Zach first arrived at the guesthouse at the end of the autumn of 2021, their statement said.
He was supposed to stay without his mother for several days or weeks, contributing to the converted farm's maintenance in exchange for bed and board. He then stayed again for several periods of varying lengths.
The teenager helped out in the garden and liked to cook, their statement said.
- Saucepan of pasta -
The owners were absent when AFP visited the guesthouse on Monday.
But a sign hanging near the entrance welcomed guests, and a wind chime danced above the main door.
A saucepan of pasta and sauce lay abandoned on the stove, not far from two long wooden tables where Alex and his grandfather likely shared meals.
The village's mayor, Rolande Alibert, refused to speak to AFP, saying she was tired of speaking to the media after much of the British press started camping out on the narrow road outside her home.
Policemen who came to her home on Monday afternoon gently asked journalists to leave her alone.
Alex returned to Britain on Saturday to be reunited with his grandmother Susan Caruana, who British press has said is his legal guardian.
French network BFMTV caught a glimpse of him, a white hoodie hiding his face, outside his family home in the northern English town of Oldham on Monday.
I'm glad to be here for Christmas, the channel quoted the boy as telling its reporter outside his home, adding he declined to speak on camera. I am sorry, I can't talk to you because of the probe, he said.
A student working as a delivery driver, Fabien Accidini, picked Alex up between two villages in the pouring rain in the small hours of Thursday morning.
After hearing his story, he lent him his mobile phone so he could contact his grandmother in England via Facebook, and they got in touch with police.
- 'Conspiracists' -
The boy told investigators he had lived a nomadic life in Spain, Morocco and then France as part of a spiritual community.
A French deputy prosecutor last week said Alex decided to escape when his mother announced she was going to Finland, where she likely now was.
Near the guesthouse, British expatriate Susie Harrison, 61, said she had met Melanie Batty at a market some 75 kilometres (45 miles) away in October 2021.
She told her she was called Rose.
Rose and her father, I could see they were conspiracists, Harrison told AFP, recalling how when she told her new acquaintance she had been ill with Covid-19, she said the disease did not exist.
Melanie, she felt, was looking for a spiritual community -- not so much a community to become a part of, but one to lead herself, she said.
But the son he was such a lovely boy -- friendly, kind, polite, healthy, she said.
You wouldn't know that there was some strange story behind it.