Alex Batty was just 11-years-old when he was abducted by his own mother and forced to live off grid – now he recalls what life was like in the ‘alternative’ and ‘spiritual’ community
Alex Batty, the British boy who vanished after being kidnapped by his own mum aged 11, has revealed the true toll of his abduction ordeal in an eye-opening interview.
The 20-year-old, from Oldham, Manchester, was declared missing by grandmother Susan Caruana in 2017 after his mother and grandfather abducted him while on holiday in Spain, before moving to France.
His mum, Melanie, who was not his legal guardian and deeply immersed in a world of conspiracy theories, told him to throw away his passport. Alex then found himself living a frightening life off-grid, moving from place to place and longing for the normality of home.
Now, in his first in-depth interview since fleeing his mother, Alex has recalled the darkest moments of his abduction – including being forced to live in a tent while his mother stayed in the comfort of a caravan just a stone’s throw away.
READ MORE: Alex Batty was kidnapped by his mum aged 11 – now he’s a father and ready to speak to her again
In a new BBC documentary titled Kidnapped By My Mum, the young man returns to the areas in Spain and France where he was held captive, and asks difficult questions on why no-one around him raised the alarm.
In 2014, when Alex was eight, Melanie and his grandad David took him to live at a commune in Morocco but came back after six months when they ran out of money. Shortly after, Melanie left for Bali, leaving Alex with his gran for two years.
Alex’s gran, Sue, said: “Melanie didn’t believe in school anymore but I did. I started to look into becoming Alex’s special guardian and she went berserk. She hated me for stealing her son.
“One day in 2017 she asked if she could take him on holiday with her and David to Spain. Alex was jumping up and down with excitement saying, ‘Please, Grandma. Please let me go.’ And I ended up saying, yeah.”
When they had been away for a few days Sue, from Oldham, rang Alex to ask him: “You are coming home on Saturday, aren’t you?” He asked his mum who replied: “Right, that’s it. Switch the phone off.”
Sue then received a Facebook video from Melanie saying, “I will not bow down to criminals, nor condone or perpetuate corruption, nor will I give my boy up to my mum, nor the authorities..” David then announced: “It’s goodbye, Sue. Goodbye to family and friends. Alex wants to be with his mum.”
He tells how his mum told him to throw his phone and passport in the bin, to prevent them from being traced, saying: “I felt like James Bond doing it, to be honest. I thought I was really cool.”
“What they used to say is that under the law it’s classified as kidnapping but it isn’t kidnapping because she’s my mum,” he added.
To avoid being found, Alex recalls he wore hats and glasses, grew out his hair and stayed indoors most of the time as news of his disappearance spread.
Over the following years they kept moving from one place to the next. In 2021 they moved to the small village of Camps-sur-l’Agly, in the French Pyrenees. Alex’s mother and grandfather lived an ‘alternative’ lifestyle, with no bank accounts, passports and anything that could help authorities track them down.
Life for Alex changed when he started to question their way of life. When things got heated with his mum, she forced him to live in a tent for six months. He recalled: “When I was 15, I started really thinking for myself. So, I’d try and find my own answers and when I did, if they differed in any way it would start a row. It was constant battles, constant arguments, constant yelling. So, she kicked me out of her campervan.
“I was living in a tent for a few months whilst my mum had this really nice warm campervan next to me. It was wintertime, raining, it was wet, it was cold all the time, and my mum was living in this campervan with heating, water and electric, and would rather me sleep outside in a tent.”
Explaining that he had to work from a young age to afford his mother’s rent and food, he added: “We were always trying to be tight with money. I used to eat one meal a day. Just pasta and sauce on its own for lord knows how long. That’s just how I used to eat.”
In the documentary, Alex visits the campsite owners in France and confronts them about their efforts to try and help him. He questions Angelique and Serena, the campsite proprietors, over why they allowed the family to stay on the site without ID.
Angelique says: “His mum said they had lost them. And there were complications. They had to hide because they were in danger. I have a heart, so I accepted.” But Alex pushes them and asks: “Did you guys ever know who I was? My real name, my real identity?”
“No, not at all, sorry. We would have called the police. Besides, I regret not doing it”, Angelique responds. It’s during this conversation that Alex learns a call was placed to French social services – one that might have saved him. But the help never came.
The documentary reveals how Serena witnessed Alex sleeping in a tiny tent throughout the freezing winter months. “She decided to make you sleep outside in winter. It was very cold, in a small tent… from September to March approximately”, Serena said. “And then she left you like that to punish you. And so, then I thought it was a bit of abuse.
“I thought she was really not a responsible mum. And so, I called social services, except they told me that you were a foreigner and as I did not have your true identity, they couldn’t do anything.”
France Enfance Protégée, the French social services agency, told the BBC they were unable to discuss Alex’s particular case due to confidentiality rules.
The teen was also longing for an education during his abduction, and would cry at the sight of children leaving the school gates. After the winter on the campsite, Alex, his mum and grandad resided in a B&B with a couple named Ingrid and Fred – who offered Alex and his granddad free lodging in exchange for helping out around the property.
Ingrid told the documentary about the moment she realised Alex craved an education, recalling: “I think there was a turning point. One time I was going to the shop without him, and he said ‘oh please can you buy me a notebook with lines or squares…’ And I said ‘oh you want a notebook?’. He said ‘yeah, I want a school notebook like you use at school’.”
Alex had told Ingrid he wanted to try and catch up and study online, wanting to return back to school. Ingrid then took Alex to a coding college in Perpignan – where he initially gave a fake name. He later disclosed his real identity and teachers found various articles about his vanishing and contacted the police.
Recalling this encounter, Alex said: “I was doing some cleaning, I was sweeping up and these two policemen came walking down and my heart’s pounding because of that and it all started rushing in my head, like no way this is happening.” After a short conversation with Alex, the officers left.
He said: “I thought they’d come to take me away and honestly, I was nervous. I was relieved when they told me about a stolen car, but also, I was devastated. I could have said something there and then, but I didn’t because protecting my mum and grandad, them not going to prison, was at the forefront of my mind.”
It was in 2023 that Alex decided to leave, saying: “I started to realise that this wasn’t what I should be doing,” says Alex. “I should be at college, not stuck in a mountain in France.”
He wrote his mum and grandad a letter saying he loved them and to not be mad, then snuck out in the dead of night. After walking in the Pyrenees for four days he hitched a lift with a lorry driver.
After being taken to a local police station his story made headlines worldwide – before he returned to live with his grandmother in Oldham. The police abduction investigation was eventually closed. Alex said: “I spent six years just being worried the entire time, so not having to worry any more about it, really helped to put it behind me and move forward.”
Alex, who recently started a family of his own after becoming a father to a baby girl, said the experience of making the documentary led him to reach out to his mother again.
His mother Melanie was invited to respond to the allegations in the programme, but declined. His grandfather David Batty was also contacted but didn’t respond.
READ MORE: Who is Alex Batty and what has he said about mum after kidnap ordeal?
