Alex Batty has admitted his grandfather – who he told police was dead – is actually alive, but he doesn’t know where he is.

The British teenager initially told the police his beloved grandfather David – who used the alias Peter – had died six months before he fled.

But now the 17-year-old admitted this isn’t true, and the tattoo artist, 64, is alive.

Just two days before Alex fled, he joined his grandfather and mother at Chalabre’s Cafe des Sports, using their fake names, Zac, Peter and Rose.

Alex admitted he doesn’t know where his grandfather is as he is ‘moving around’ but had previously lived with him and his mother.

The teenager said he was often left in the care of his grandparent when his mother left him for long periods of time – once up to seven months.

But he walked out on his mother and his grandfather after an argument, and set out on an arduous journey that resulted in him being brought home to his legal guardian and grandmother, Susan Caruana, 68.

Alex Batty has admitted his grandfather – who he told police was dead – is actually alive, but he doesn’t know where he is

Fugitive mother Melanie Batty sitting next to her father David Batty (in denim shirt) and her son Alex Batty (in Black T-shirt) at the Esperaza market in June 2023 

The British teenager initially told the police his beloved grandfather David – who used the alias Peter – had died six months before he fled (pictured before they went missing)

Alex, pictured before he went missing, admitted he doesn’t know where his grandfather is as he is ‘moving around’ but had previously lived with him and his mother 

David and Melanie Batty have been wanted since they took Alex on holiday to Spain in 2017, when he was 11, and never returned.

Alex told The Sun: ‘He moved me to a property with mum. I know he’s not passed away but I don’t know where he is because he was just moving around.’

He left because he wanted to lead a normal life after six years of wandering across Europe, and had enough of the hippy’ pain in the a** lifestyle’ he led with his mother.

He added that his mother held ‘anti-government’ beliefs, including that many people are ‘slaves’.

Alex walked for 22 miles over two days before a delivery driver spotted him carrying a skateboard at 3am and stopped for him, concerned.

The teenager used the driver’s phone to contact his legal guardian – his grandmother Susan Caruana, 68 – and said in a text ‘please pick up’, The Sun reported.

His mother and alleged kidnapper, 48-year-old Melanie Batty, remains on the run.

Alex, who never went to school while living with his mother, dreamed of becoming a software engineer.

He walked out on his mother and his grandfather, David, after an argument.

The 17-year-old escaped on Monday December 11 at around midnight, when his mother was asleep in bed.

Carrying only a skateboard and a rucksack filled with clothes and essentials, he set off for the nearest city – Toulouse, 70 miles away.

He packed four T-shirts, three pairs of trousers, socks, pants, a torch, 100 euros and a Swiss Army Knife.

Alex told The Sun: ‘I had an argument with my mum and I just thought I’m gonna leave because I can’t live with her.’

He added: ‘She’s a good person. But she’s just not a great mom. She just doesn’t do motherly things that you’re supposed to do. She’s not very warm and open.’

The teenager had convinced his mother to move to a rented farmhouse rather than living in the mountains.

He was weary of constantly moving house and working in exchange for food and boarding, and said he only made one friend his own age during his six years away – a Spanish girl he met in a cafe.

The cafe in Chalabre, France where Alex was seen with his mother and grandfather David

A tent at the ‘Garden of Eden’ ‘spiritual community’ near Chalabre, Aude

Alex Batty with his mother Melanie (centre) and grandfather before they left the UK

Alex flew to Malaga in September 2017 before being taken to a ‘spiritual community’ in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Investigators believe Alex escaped the rural community in southern France and spent days trekking across the French Pyrenees before being picked up by a trucker who took him to a police station in Revel, near Toulouse

Gite de la Bastide in the part of the Pyrenees where the trio were living

He said he learned languages by himself and studied maths and computing from textbooks but didn’t attend school.

Alex said he first had doubts about their alternative lifestyle when he was 14 and began considering his goals for the future.

The teenager was worried about his mother and grandfather being arrested on suspicion of his abduction, so he lied to those he met on the road.

Alex – who used the alias Zack Edwards in France – made up a story about spending four days walking through the mountains.

The 17-year-old spent his first night sleeping outside in the cold in a woodland, drinking from mountain springs.

When he arrived at the town of Quillan, he bought a tuna baguette to eat. But he waited until 6pm to leave because he was worried his mother might pass in her car.

He said he tried to be ‘clever’ and walked from Quillan back to Chalabre, asking for directions and telling those he met that he was lost.

But he said ‘I knew exactly where I was going’.

Melanie Batty and her father David were pictured looking relaxed outside a bar in a village square in the Pyrenees mountains in June this year with Alex and a group of their friends.

Dressed in a white summer dress with her hair tied up and wearing sunglasses and sandals, Ms Batty looks like any tourist in the south of France.

Sitting next to her in a black T-shirt, combat trousers and trainers is her son Alex. He appears like any teenager, slightly bored but listening as the adults chat.

On the other side, with a white goatee beard, denim shirt and with sunglasses on his head is Ms Batty’s father, David, 64.

A friend explained: ‘Rose, as we knew Melanie, has fled. She’s long gone. She’s gone to Spain.

‘I think [her father] Peter has gone with her. She wanted to get away from all the attention.

‘Rose, her dad and Zac are a nice family but always a bit cautious.

This is the L’Eden spiritual retreat where Melanie Batty was living in France

The Garden of Eden Spiritual community, where the trio are reported to have stayed

Fugitive mother Melanie Batty (dressed in white) sitting next to her father David Batty (in denim shirt) and her son Alex Batty (black t-shirt)

‘I don’t know the full extent of their story, but it was not for nothing that they fled Britain.

‘Rose said she took her son out of a bad situation and protected him as much as she could for as long as she could.

‘She would mention odd things about her past. She said the life they were living in England before was hell.’

Alex, now aged 17, was reunited with his grandmother Susan Caruana, who is his legal guardian, in Oldham on Saturday night.

He had been living at a remote farmhouse in the hamlet of La Bastide with his grandfather who worked as a handyman since the autumn of 2021.

He was cared for by the French family that owned the farmhouse, and was considered as part of the family.

French police said last week that Alex told them he decided to flee the commune following his grandfather’s death six months ago and after his mother said she planned to move with him to Finland.

After six years of living a nomadic lifestyle travelling from Morocco to Spain and then on to France – all while never going to school and having to forage for food – Alex decided ‘this had to stop’, Toulouse Assistant Public Prosecutor Antoine Leroy said.

Spread over 43 hectares of farmland, the ‘L’Eden’, where Ms Batty is thought to have stayed under the name Rose, has flower meadows, woods and has a river running through it.

Tents, teepees and huts are dotted around the rolling hills and horses, dogs and cats wander around at will.