Alex Batty: Police launch investigation into alleged abduction
A criminal investigation has begun into the alleged child abduction of Alex Batty, who reappeared this month after going missing six years ago.
Officers have interviewed the now 17-year-old following his return from France, Greater Manchester Police said.
After being looked after by the French authorities, Alex met his step-grandfather at Toulouse airport on Saturday before boarding a flight to the UK, the force added.
He was taken on holiday when he was 11 and returned to the UK last weekend after being found by chiropody student Fabien Accidini near the French city of Toulouse.
The teenager, from Oldham, trekked for four days and nights across the Pyrenees, a French prosecutor said, after spending years in France and Spain with his mother and his grandfather.
His mother Melanie Batty, who does not have legal guardianship, may be in Finland, French prosecutors have said. Antoine Leroy told reporters Alex said he knew his life with his mother “had to stop” after she said she intended to move to Finland.
He is now under the legal guardianship of his grandmother, Susan Caruana, in Oldham.
Alex Batty’s grandmother, Susan Caruana, pictured in 2017
In a newspaper interview, the teenager said it felt “surreal” to be home and he still goes to sleep not expecting to wake up in England.
He went on holiday with his mother and grandfather David Batty, 59, in 2017.
He never returned and is said to have lived an “alternative” lifestyle abroad before deciding to return home.
Speaking to the Sun newspaper, the 17-year-old said he spent six years wandering around Europe with his mum and grandfather and first thought of leaving when he was 14.
“Being back with my grandma feels quite surreal,” he said. “Every time I go to sleep, I feel like I’m going to be waking up back in France. It’s not really kicked in yet that I am back in England.
“For the first few years, when I was in Spain, it was a vacation really, spending most days doing whatever I wanted, reading, drawing, going to the beach.”
He said he “started to pick up slack” at around 14, when he took up odd jobs in construction, decoration, painting walls and renovation work.
“I had a non-existent social life to be honest,” he said, adding he didn’t go to school and instead learned languages and studied maths and computing when he came across a textbook.
“And the entire six-year span, I made one friend and it was the only person really that I’d met for the entire six years that was even close to my age.”
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Speaking about his mother, who he described as “anti-government, anti-vax”, Alex said: “She’s a great person and I love her but she’s just not a great mum.
“I had an argument with my mum and I just thought I’m gonna leave because I can’t live with her.”
“I realised it wasn’t a great way to live for my future,” he added.
“Moving around. No friends, no social life. Working, working, work and not studying. That’s the life I imagined I would be leading if I were to stay with my mum.”
According to The Sun, Alex walked out of a rented house they were staying in near Chalabre, in southern France, and left a goodbye note on Monday last week.
The Sun front page
He was picked up by chiropody student Fabien Accidini near the French city of Toulouse in the early hours of Wednesday – two days later.
“He was delivering parcels so I helped him because it’s the least I could do,” Alex said.
“He let me use his phone to contact my grandma. After that he calls the police and a squad car nearby takes me to the nearest police station.”
He can now look forward to spending time with family members, friends and others he grew up with in Greater Manchester, where he was living as a young boy and police say is “where he wants to be”.
“When I got back to Manchester it was raining as usual,” he added.
“I was driven back to my gran’s house and I walked in the door and she’s in the living room. I started shaking and just gave her a massive hug.
“The house is different now but still feels the same.”
A member of rap trio Kneecap was greeted by hundreds of supporters as he arrived at court this morning, charged with allegedly supporting a proscribed terror organisation.
Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, is accused of displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig in London in November last year.
Demonstrators waving flags and holding banners in support of the rapper greeted him with cheers as he made his way into Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
The rapper is mobbed by fans and media as he arrives at court. Pics: PA
Supported by his Kneecap bandmates Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh, it took the rapper more than a minute to enter the building as security officers worked to usher him inside through a crowd of photographers.
Fans held signs which read “Free Mo Chara”, while others waved Irish and Palestinian flags.
As the hearing got under way, O hAnnaidh confirmed his name, date of birth and address, with the court hearing an Irish language interpreter would be present.
During a previous hearing, prosecutors said the 27-year-old is “well within his rights” to voice his opinions on the Israel-Palestine conflict, but said the alleged incident at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town was a “wholly different thing”.
O hAnnaidh is yet to enter a plea to the charge.
Bandmates Naoise O Caireallain (pictured, centre) and JJ O Dochartaigh are supporting O hAnnaidh. Pic: Reuters
Who are Kneecap?
Kneecap put out their first single in 2017 and rose to wider prominence in 2024 after the release of their debut album and an eponymously titled film – a fictionalised retelling of how the band came together and their fight to save the Irish language.
The film, in which the trio play themselves and co-star alongside starring Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender, won the BAFTA for outstanding debut earlier this year, for director and writer Rich Peppiatt.
Last year, they won a discrimination case against the UK government after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch tried to refuse them a £14,250 funding award when she was business secretary.
They are known for songs including H.O.O.D, Fine Art, and Better Way To Live, featuring Fontaines DC frontman Grian Chatten.
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A council has won its bid to temporarily block asylum seekers from being housed at a hotel in Essex.
Epping Forest District Council sought an interim injunction to stop migrants from being accommodated at the Bell Hotel in Epping, which is owned by Somani Hotels Limited.
A government attempt to delay the application was rejected by the High Court judge earlier on Tuesday.
The interim injunction now means the hotel has to be cleared of its occupants within 14 days.
Somani Hotels said it intended to appeal the decision.
Several protests have been held outside the hotel in recent weeks after an asylum seeker housed there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, was charged with trying to kiss a teenage girl and denies the allegations. He is due to stand trial later this month.
Police officers ahead of a demonstration outside The Bell Hotel in July. Pic: PA
At a hearing last week, barristers for the council claimed Somani Hotels breached planning rules because the site is not being used for its intended purpose as a hotel.
Philip Coppel KC, for the council, said the problem was “getting out of hand” and “causing great anxiety” to local people.
He said the hotel “is no more a hotel [to asylum seekers] than a borstal to a young offender”.
File pic: PA
Piers Riley-Smith, for Somani Hotels Limited, said a “draconian” injunction would cause “hardship” for those in the hotel, arguing “political views” were not grounds for an injunction to be granted.
He also said contracts to house asylum seekers were a “financial lifeline” for the hotel, which was only 1% full in August 2022, when it was open to paying customers.
Protesters and counter-demonstrators outside The Bell Hotel in July. Pic: PA
The hotel housed migrants from May 2020 to March 2021, then from October 2022 to April 2024, with the council never instigating any formal enforcement proceedings against this use, Mr Riley-Smith said.
They were being placed there again in April 2025 and Mr Riley-Smith said a planning application was not made “having taken advice from the Home Office”.
At the end of the hearing last week, Mr Justice Eyre ordered that Somani Hotels could not “accept any new applications” from asylum seekers to stay at the site until he had made his ruling on the temporary injunction.
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