Alex Batty became “part of the family”, a French couple who hosted the youngster for months at a time has said. Frederic Hambye and Ingrid Beauve said Alex, who went missing in 2017, was dropped off at their guest house in the southwest of France by his mother and grandfather in autumn 2021.

In a statement posted over the weekend, they said he spent several months living at their property and earned his keep by completing chores around the house and garden.

The couple came to treat Alex, who was known to them as “Zach”, as one of their own, and told in a statement how he had “good relations” with their children.

They said he spent time with them as his mother searched “for a place to live in a community”, but that their Provence town didn’t have the “ambition” to meet what she was allegedly searching for.

READ MORE: Alex Batty returns to UK after being missing abroad for six years

Mr Hambye and Ms Beauve, the owners of Gîte de la Bastide, a guesthouse in Camps-sur-l’Agly, issued their statement as Alex left their property on Sunday, December 17.

The couple said they didn’t know their “Zach” was missing teen Alex until last week and that he stayed with them for “some longer or shorter periods” between 2021 and 2023.

They said they gave him a room of his own and free access to the guest house and its facilities while he worked on a “WorkAway” formula to receive accommodation and food, and he “was also part of our family and had good relations with our kids”.

The teen left “several times” to join his mother in “successive places of residence” between Aude and Ariège in the South of France, they said, giving investigators another vital angle as they build the account of his 2017 disappearance.

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Alex was allegedly abducted by his mother and grandfather, Melanie and David Batty, while they were on a holiday in Spain in October 2017.

Friends and relatives have said they were involved in an off-grid cult-live movement based on the belief that homeowners should not pay for a mortgage, council tax, bills or TV licence.

Mr Hambye and Ms Beauve said they understood she was “looking for a place to live in a community”, but that “La Bastide doesn’t have this ambition”, adding: “Nor are we a spiritual community.”

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French authorities said Alex had decided to leave the country after Ms Batty said she would take the family to Finland.

Police said in a statement on Friday, December 15, that they were working on returning the teen to the UK but were yet to receive a statement from the teen, now 17.

The force said it is speaking with him and will decide ­“whether there [should be] is a criminal investigation” as they prioritise his “reintegration with society”.

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