Alex Batty: missing Oldham boy found six years later in France

Aunt claims 17-year-old has been 'brainwashed' after being kept in a 'spiritual community'

Alex Batty
Alex Batty sent a message to his grandmother, Susan Caruana, saying: 'I love you, I want to come home'
(Image credit: Greater Manchester Police)

A relative of a British teenager missing for six years claimed he has been "brainwashed" by the community he has lived in and "we don't know what he’ll be like when he comes home".

Alex Batty, from Oldham, was 11 and under the guardianship of his grandmother, Susan Caruana, when he was allegedly abducted in 2017 by his mother, Melanie Batty, and David Batty, his grandfather.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.