Alex Batty’s mother has broken her cover and told friends that she’s ‘staying on the run’ after her son returned to the UK.

Melanie, 43, and her father David, 64, took Alex on what was supposed to be a two-week holiday to Spain six years ago when he was just 11 years old but never came home again.

Police launched a criminal investigation into the alleged kidnapping of Alex after he returned to his legal guardian and grandmother Susan Caruana earlier this month.

And now expat Tony Smith, who used to let his converted cowshed in the French Pyrenees to Melanie, has revealed that she has been in touch to tell him: ‘I’ve got to keep running.’

Tony, 81, said Melanie emailed him last week and said she’s ‘got to stay on the run’ and believes that she is with Alex’s grandfather.

Melanie’s former landlord said he hasn’t heard from her since she sent that email and thinks it’s because she is ‘scared of being traced’.

She is thought to have fled to a commune near the village of Bugarach just 25 miles away from Villefort where she was living before, reports The Sun.

Bugarach is a mountainside conspiracy theorist hotbed once flooded by doomsday cult believers in 2012 who thought it would be the only safe place when the world ends.

According to a source close to Melanie, she is being shielded by members of a ‘secretive’ commune overlooking the village.

‘They will do anything to protect their own,’ the source said. ‘I understand she’s there.’

A resident in Bugarach added: ‘It’s not hard to hide someone there. It’s very remote.’

When Melanie upped and left her home in the middle of the night, she is thought to have been travelling in a white Peugeot 208 with a close Italian friend called Fabrizio who she calls her ‘disciple’.

‘He would do anything for her,’ Tony told The Sun. ‘He was always very passive and just followed her around.’

Another friend said of Melanie, who has an alternative belief system: ‘She really thinks she’s on some kind of divine mission and is being led by a higher entity.’

Alex, originally from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was picked up by delivery driver Fabien Accidini in Revel, near the French city of Toulouse, in the early hours of December 13 after walking across the Pyrenees ‘for four days and four nights’.

Fabien said the boy told him ‘that he had been kidnapped by his mother’ years ago after a trip to Marbella in Spain in September 2017.

He added that Alex had ‘been in France for the past two years in a spiritual community that was a bit strange with his mother who is also a bit strange’.

Alex said he first thought of leaving when he was 14, having become fed up of his nomadic existence, with no friends and no social life, before finally making his escape this month.

‘I had an argument with my mum and I just thought I’m gonna leave because I can’t live with her,’ he said. ‘It was a normal day and I just decided it’s time to leave.’

He wrote his mum a farewell letter 20 minutes before setting off, and told her: ‘Hey mum, I want you to know I love you very much.

‘I am very thankful for the life that you provided for me over the past few years.

‘Don’t worry about yourselves – I’m sure you won’t get found. Don’t worry about me either. You know I can take care of myself.

‘I love you very much. Don’t be too mad with me. Love Alex.’

Greater Manchester Police officers have interviewed Alex since his return from France as part of an investigation into his alleged abduction.

A few days ago, Alex celebrated his first Christmas back at home with presents which included crisps, Irn-Bru and tickets to go and watch Manchester United.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.