Alex Batty was taken from the UK by his mum in 2017 and found six years later living in the French Pyrenees. Now aged 20, he opens up about his life on the run in BBC documentary Kidnapped By My Mum
Alex Batty made headlines worldwide in 2017 after disappearing with his mum and grandfather during what should have been a brief family getaway. Neither adult had legal custody, sparking an international missing persons hunt.
Over the following six years, Alex lived completely off-grid, with the trio avoiding bank accounts, passports and anything that could help authorities track them down. In 2023, the Manchester teenager made his escape, trekking for hours along dark mountain roads in the French Pyrenees before stopping a passing motorist and declaring "I've been kidnapped". Three years later, Alex, now 20, has chosen to reveal the complete account of his abduction and the six years he spent missing.
In a new one-off BBC documentary called Kidnapped By My Mum, he returns to the locations where he lived during this period, exposing not only how he remained hidden but the ideology that kept him captive. Each discovery paints a disturbing portrait of just how simple it was for a youngster to vanish without trace.
'They put a spell on me' In September 2017, Alex was whisked out of the UK by his mum and grandad, who lacked legal custody. At the time, Alex had been residing with his grandma for two years. Speaking to the BBC, Alex's grandmother Susan Caruna recalled: "Alex had been living with me two years. Melanie came here and asked if they could go on holiday.
Alex was jumping up and down 'please grandma, please grandma, please let me go' and I ended up saying yeah.
", reports the Liverpool Echo. "Do you know, it's funny, it was like they put a spell on me. It was like they made me say 'yes you can go'. I can't explain why I said yes.
" Yet, on the day Alex was supposed to come back, Susan was sent a video from Alex's mum. In the clip, Alex appeared to read from a script: "It upsets me to tell you the truth because I don't like hurting your feelings. I want to live with my mummy and grandad. It is one million times better.
Stealing me from your daughter is soulless, it is not nice.
"If you are not selfish and want the best for me then please do not get anybody to look for us. Look into your heart and think what I want. Again, think what I want, not you want. Goodbye.
" After that, all communication stopped. In the documentary, Alex looked back on his time at campsites in France, where he spent nearly a year living with his mum and grandad in 2022, five years after he vanished. He recalled: "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.
"My mum would tell me constantly, 'you need to do spiritual work', 'you need to do inner work', but 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.
" Several chances to rescue Alex were missed, as revealed in the documentary. While speaking with campsite proprietors Angelique and Serena, Alex questioned why they permitted the pair to stay without valid identification. Angelique said: "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.
"Did you guys ever know who I was? My real name, my real identity?
" Alex asked. "No, not at all, sorry. We would have called the police. Besides, I regret not doing it", Angelique responded.
It's during this exchange that Alex learns a call was placed to French social services - one that might have saved him. 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.
" Alex subsequently shared this bombshell with his grandmother during a phone conversation. France Enfance Protégée, the French social services agency, informed the BBC they were unable to discuss Alex's particular case due to confidentiality rules. Following a brutal winter at the campsite, Alex, his mum and granddad moved back in with Ingrid and Fred, a couple running a B&B who'd offered Alex and his granddad free lodging in exchange for helping out around the property.
Ingrid told the BBC 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.
' 'He said: "I want to study online. I want to try to catch up. I want to be able to go back to school"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.
' 'He said: I want to study online. I want to try to catch up. I want to be able to go back to school'. That's how I got aware that actually he was not so happy about being in this remote life.
" Ingrid subsequently brought Alex to Ecole 42, a coding college in Perpignan. Marie, a staff member at Ecole 42 who met Alex at the time, featured in the documentary and revealed he initially provided them with a false name of Zach Edwards before eventually disclosing his real identity.
"As soon as they left, I told my colleague, how weird was it that he gave us a false name. So, we first look up Zach Edwards. There was nothing. ," Marie said, adding: "And then he typed Alex Batty, and then we saw all the articles with a photo of him from 10 years ago and for us it was the same person.
We have to do something, because potentially he is in danger.
" The college director alerted the police, who visited Ingrid and Fred's residence under the pretence of searching for a missing vehicle and spoke to Alex. 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 departed. 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.
" The Police Nationale in Perpignan were contacted about the claims made in the programme but failed to respond to the BBC's enquiries. Looking back at where things stand with his mum today, Alex said: "My relationship with my mum is such a complicated thing.
I'm annoyed at what she did.... the experiences I missed out on, my lack of education but speaking to all these people about my mum opened up my eyes to why she did what she did. This entire trip has reconnected me to my mum and grandad and made me want to build that bridge again.
"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 mum push things down my throat like she used to do. " Greater Manchester Police launched a criminal probe into alleged child abduction after Alex returned to the UK, but shelved it in 2025, stating the family didn't back it and there was "no realistic chance of prosecution".
Alex's mum Melanie Batty was asked to address the claims featured in the programme but chose not to, while Alex's grandad David Batty was also approached but didn't reply. Since coming back home in 2023, Alex has successfully completed his Maths and English GCSEs and is now on the hunt for employment. In January 2026, Alex welcomed a baby daughter into the world.
Kidnapped By My Mum is on BBC Three at 9pm and BBC One at 10.40pm on Wednesday, May 13. It will also be available to stream on BBC iPlayer
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