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Abducted Child's Decade Abroad Revealed
14 May
Summary
- Alex Batty was abducted by his mother in 2017 and taken abroad.
- They lived off-grid, with no school or passport.
- Alex now 20, details years living in isolation and manual labour.

Police footage has captured initial interviews with Alex Batty, who was abducted as a child and taken to live abroad by his mother. Alex, originally from Oldham, was reported missing by his grandmother in 2017 at the age of 11. His mother and grandfather abducted him during a Spanish holiday, subsequently relocating to France.
His mother, Melanie, not his legal guardian, was heavily influenced by conspiracy theories. She instructed Alex to destroy his passport. The pair lived a part-off-grid existence, during which Alex did not attend school. In a recent BBC documentary, Alex, now 20, detailed his years in isolation. This period included living in a tent and surviving on minimal food, sometimes just one meal a day, while also undertaking manual labor for income.