Alex Batty’s mum was ‘believed flat Earth theories’ and lived in French commune

Alex Batty ended up at a commune in France after his mum and grandad became involved with conspiracy theories, sources close to the family have claimed.

The teenager, now 17, reunited with his family in Oldham last night as he returned to the UK after more than six years away.

It is understood he will now spend Christmas with his legal guardian, grandmother Susan Caruana.

There remains no sign of his 48-year-old mother, Melanie Batty, who is accused of ‘abducting’ her own son when he was just 11.

Now, new claims have emerged regarding her and grandad David’s alleged interest in various Facebook groups and online conspiracy theories before Alex was taken abroad.

The pair are said to have engaged with flat Earth conspiracies and developed a shared “off-the-grid” philosophy, which saw them take on the belief that homeowners should not pay for their mortgage, council tax, electricity, gas, or water bills, or a TV licence.

According to close family sources speaking to The Times, David and Alex both became followers of a movement called the One People’s Public Trust, which claims to its followers to have “legally foreclosed” systems enforced by governments and companies.

They also made connections on Facebook activist groups for homeowners facing eviction, according to the newspaper, including “Protection from evictions” and “UK mortgage challengers”. Activists on these groups promote the idea that people should not pay mortgages or bills, and promote alternative strategies such as paying the mortgage lender a tiny sum of £1 a month. Melanie supported 64-year-old David Batty in his fight with bailiffs in 2013 over his end-of-terraced house in Oldham, following a difficult period where he lost his job, fell ill, and divorced Alex’s grandma Susan.

Through the Facebook anti-eviction groups, Alex’s mum and grandad are said to made friends with a divorced father who claimed he had discovered a free, unlimited source of energy. He invited them both to Morocco in 2014, the Times reported, and they joined a crowd who watched on in a makeshift lab as light bulbs appeared to be illuminated without an obvious power source.

The same year, Melanie took Alex – aged eight at the time – to live in a commune in the country with David, where it is claimed some of the members believed in various conspiracy theories, such as the flat Earth theory. But grandma Susan told how Melanie left Alex behind in Morocco when she went to live in Bali with a new boyfriend, and said in a 2018 interview that she was “panic-stricken” and “paid for a flight home for him”.

Alex lived with his grandmother for some time after this, while his mum stayed in Bali – but a trip to Spain in 2017 aged 11 would see him disappear from the UK completely for more than six years. He flew to Malaga with his mum and and David, and his mum sent a video message home saying Alex would not be returning.

Melanie, David, and Alex are then thought to have spent a number of years in Morocco before they arrived in the Pyrenees, France in 2020. They spent time there living with a nomadic community, and are thought to have lived off vegetables grown in allotments while Melanie sold solar panels.

Alex was found by delivery driver Fabien Accidini on a rural road close to Quillan, France, on Wednesday. The part-time driver offered Alex a lift before realising who he was. The teen has since returned to the UK, and met grandmother Susan Caruana in Oldham, Greater Manchester on Saturday evening.