Alex Batty

Alex Batty is a British man who went missing at the age of 11 in October 2017 and reappeared on 13 December 2023.

Batty disappeared after going on a holiday trip to Spain with his mother and grandfather. During the intervening six years, Batty lived "an off-the-grid life" with them in Morocco, Spain, and southwest France. At the age of 14 he decided to return to a more traditional life, and made his escape three years later at the age of 17, when, he said, his mother planned to relocate to Finland. Batty later told Greater Manchester Police that after he left his mother, he headed for Toulouse on foot and was later found by a delivery driver. On 22 December, after interviewing Batty, police confirmed they had launched a criminal investigation into his alleged abduction at the age of 11.

Background Batty was born on 13 February 2006. His father left when he was two years old and he was raised by his mother, Melanie Batty, and maternal grandmother, Susan Caruana. His grandmother later became his legal guardian. and attended Hathershaw College.

Batty at times travelled abroad with his mother and grandfather. In 2014, the three stayed in a commune in North Africa. On 30 September, the three flew into Malaga Airport, Caruana had given permission for the two to take her grandson out of the country.

Investigation After Batty, his mother, and his grandfather failed to return to the United Kingdom, police initially suspected they might have travelled to Melila, Spain in hopes of travelling to Morocco. It was at this point he began thinking about returning to the UK. "I started weighing up the pros and cons of each 'lifestyle' and after a couple of months I realised... England was definitely the way forward." After deciding he would leave, Batty wrote his mother a goodbye note, telling her "how much I loved her, how much I appreciated what she had done for me. I didn’t want her to worry about me". He said he then took a warm jacket, his skateboard and some money, and left in the "pitch black" of night while it was "raining quite a lot". when he came across Batty, who was walking alongside the road at 3 a.m., carrying a backpack, a torch, and a skateboard. Batty then used Accidini's mobile phone to text his grandmother. Accidini took Batty to Revel, Haute-Garonne, where he handed him over to the police.

On 22 December, Greater Manchester Police confirmed that they had interviewed Batty and had launched a criminal investigation into his alleged abduction at the age of 11.

In 2025, Greater Manchester Police called off their criminal investigation into Batty’s disappearance as the family did not support the child abduction probe and there was “no realistic chance of prosecution”. Throughout his interviews Batty had been adamant that he did not want his mother and grandfather prosecuted. In May 2026 the BBC released a documentary “Kidnapped by My Mum”, documenting the story of Batty’s disappearance, rediscovery, and how he had lived in the meantime, as he returned to Spain and France to retrace his journey and try to understand why he was abducted. Batty had recently become the father of a baby girl.