He left the U.K. on Sept. 30, 2017, for a family holiday in Spain with his mother, Melanie, and his grandfather, David, before they later moved to France. Batty’s mother did not have legal custody of him, Greater Manchester Police said in a 2023 news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n Alex was due to return to Oldham, England, on Oct. 8, 2017, but he never did. An investigation was launched, but Alex remained missing until he was located near Toulouse, France, on Dec. 13, 2023, after being found by a member of the public and taken to a police station.<\/p>\n Melanie was influenced by conspiracy theories, per the BBC<\/a>, and according to a new BBC<\/a> documentary titled Kidnapped by Mum, she told him to throw away his passport and he did not attend school while in her care.<\/p>\n Alex Batty as a child Alex, who’s now a father himself, said that making the documentary made him decide to reach out to his mom again via text message and find out “why such drastic measures were necessary.”<\/p>\n Melanie was a follower of the “sovereign citizen” movement, a group that believes governments are illegitimate and they can opt out of laws they don’t agree with, per the BBC.<\/p>\n They first moved overseas when Alex was 8 years old, traveling to Morocco. But they returned six months later when they ran out of money, and Alex moved in with his grandmother, Susan, who became his legal guardian.<\/p>\n In September 2017, Susan gave Melanie permission to take him to the city of Marbella in southern Spain, but he never came back. She contacted the police in the U.K. and there were appeals to find him in the media, but they couldn’t be traced.<\/p>\n He told the BBC in a new documentary that he spent time living in a tent, eating one meal a day and doing manual labor to earn money.<\/p>\n “My relationship with my mum, it’s such a complicated thing,” he told the outlet. “I’m annoyed at what she did … the experiences I missed out on and my lack of education.”<\/p>\n He said he found living in Spain, and hiding by wearing hats and glasses, growing his hair and staying indoors “really cool” at first, but that his mom and grandfather told him the situation was serious.<\/p>\n “What they used to say is that under the law it’s classified as kidnapping but it isn’t kidnapping because she’s my mom,” he told the BBC.<\/p>\n When he was 15, they moved to a campsite in southwest France, where, after he began to challenge his mom’s beliefs, she stopped him from living in her caravan and he had to spend six months sleeping in a tent, the broadcaster reported.<\/p>\n He left in 2023, six years after leaving the U.K., writing a goodbye note and leaving at night after his mom told him of their plans to move to Finland.<\/p>\n To protect his mom and grandfather, he said he walked for days to make it more difficult for authorities to track where he started his journey, but then decided to hitchhike after a couple of days and got in a van, he told the BBC.<\/p>\n A delivery driver picked Batty up and brought him to French police after searching the boy\u2019s name online and realizing he had been missing for roughly six years.<\/p>\n He was taken to authorities in Toulouse before being brought to the U.K., where an investigation into his disappearance began.<\/p>\n Following his return to the U.K., Alex told U.K. newspaper\u00a0The Sun<\/a> that he was back living with his grandmother in Oldham.<\/p>\n After sharing his journey with the BBC, Alex decided to send his mom a text message. “This entire trip has reconnected me to my mom and grandfather and made me want to build that bridge again,” he explained.<\/p>\n “Hopefully one day I’ll be able to get to the point where I can go and see them and have an enjoyable time. Rather than have my mom push things down my throat like she used to do.”<\/p>\n Part of the text he sent her, via the BBC, read, “I know how much you care about me and how all you wanted to do was protect me. I love both of you.”<\/p>\n He said he plans to contact her again later down the line, once he feels he’d be able to read her reply.<\/p>\n![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4fd17ff94efdce10f9f74f58b7d4ff9c.jpeg\"\/)
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Credit: Greater Manchester Police<\/p>\n