Alex Batty tells his on-the-run mother ‘I don’t want you to go to jail’ as police launch probe into his disappearance and she flees French bolthole ‘for Spain’ after teenager returned to UK

British teenager Alex Batty has urged his fugitive mother not to turn herself in after police launched a criminal investigation into his alleged kidnapping six years ago.

The 17-year-old went missing in 2017 at the age of 11 after his mother Melanie Batty, who was not his legal guardian, took him on a pre-arranged trip to Spain with his grandfather David Batty.

However, the schoolboy never returned home and spent the next six years living a nomadic hippie lifestyle, traveling around Europe with his mother, who has now reportedly fled to Spain, and grandfather.

That was until he plotted a daring escape from the French Pyrenees and has now been reunited with his grandmother Susan Caruana, 68, at her family home in Oldham, Greater Manchester.

In an interview with The sunAlex admitted he lied about trekking through the mountains for four days before being picked up by a delivery man, hoping this would deter officers from tracking down his mother and grandfather.

Alex, who wants to cooperate with the police, has now told the police newspaper: 'I don't think they should contact the police because I don't want them to go to jail.'

Alex Batty (right) is seen here with his mother Melanie Batty (left) and grandfather David Batty (center)

Being found guilty of child abduction carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years.

After finding out Alex had fled, his mother, 48, reportedly fled from her remote hideout in France late at night and traveled to Spain.

Suitcases full of her son's clothes, PlayStation games, a laptop computer, books, games, healthy food and milk were all left behind in the £480-a-month four-bed house in the hamlet of Villefort, near Chalabre in the Aude.

According to the Sun, Alex's mother travels with a close Italian male friend, Fabrizio, and only communicates with people via email.

When he returned to Britain, Alex said he disagreed with his mother's decision to let him travel around Europe, but believes she thought she was acting in his best interests.

He said she was a “good person, but not a great mother” and that she had no motherly qualities.

In the days since, Greater Manchester Police interviewed the 17-year-old following his ordeal and are now investigating the alleged kidnapping.

British police previously said they would not be able to confirm an investigation into his alleged kidnapping until they spoke to him directly.

The 17-year-old escaped at midnight on December 11 as his mother, Melanie, was sleeping in bed.

He was found by a delivery man after walking 22 miles for two days, drinking from mountain springs and sleeping in the forest.

Alex had been thinking about escaping since he was fourteen or fifteen. He eventually had a falling out with his mother and Alex decided he “just couldn't live with her” and had to run away.

Alex, from Oldham, was 11 when he failed to return from a holiday to Spain

The photos show a smiling Alex, 17, living his life in France after allegedly being kidnapped

He is also seen enrolling in an IT school in south-eastern France, amazingly giving his real name

Speaking to The Sun earlier this week, he said of his mother: 'She's a wonderful person and I love her but she's just not a great mother.'

Alex Batty (pictured left) with his mother Melanie and grandfather David six years ago

Melanie Batty sits next to her father David Batty and her son Alex Batty (far left) at a market in June 2023

Yesterday, MailOnline revealed the first photos of Alex in France 'living in plain sight'.

The photos show a smiling Alex visiting a school, cycling along a disused railway line and sitting in front of a computer screen.

The photos obtained come from Frederic Hambye and Ingrid Beauve, owners of a French farm called Gite de la Bastide, where Alex stayed during the time he went missing abroad.

French authorities said they believed his grandfather was dead, but MailOnline has established he is very much alive and was seen 'mowing the lawn' in a Pyrenees village earlier this month.

Melanie's landlord Tony Smith, 81, knew her as Rose, while David called himself Peter and Alex Zack.

He revealed how when Alex escaped, she started making plans and two days before she left, she paid the rent, cleaned the house and went on the run with her cat.

The Oldham man first met Melanie at a bar called Cafe de Sports in the small mountain town of Chalabre last summer, before moving into the converted cowshed on December 5.

Tony believes she will come back as she is well loved in the area.