ALEX Batty has begged authorities not to jail his mum and grandad after the teenager was allegedly kidnapped during a holiday to Spain.
Alex, 17, who returned to the UK after six years missing in Europe with mum Melanie, 43, and grandad David, 64, said he did not want them to hand themselves in.
Alex told Good Morning Britain: “That’s why I didn’t come home sooner.
“All I worried about was them getting locked up.”
The teen is now back home with his gran Susan – who was his legal guardian at the time of his alleged kidnapping – after he walked out of a rented property in Villefort near Chalabre on December 11.
The whereabouts of Alex’s mum and grandad is still unknown.
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Susan said Melanie, 43, and David, 64, being sent to prison is the “last thing” she would want.
“I used to think about Alex every single day and that was painful. But now I won’t think that way anymore,” the 68-year-old said.
“I don’t want them to go to prison, that’s the last thing that I want.”
Since returning to the UK, Alex has been interviewed by detectives, who launched a child abduction probe.
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Alex’s mum Melanie and his grandad David took Alex on holiday to Spain six years ago — and never returned.
He finally fled the family’s hippy lifestyle in France in December last year before his emotional reunion with his gran.
He was spotted by a delivery driver walking along a rural road at 3am on December 13 close to Camon, 65 miles south of Toulouse.
The lad was taken to a police station before flying home to Oldham — 2,269 days after Susan last saw him.
Speaking about the nomadic lifestyle favoured by his mum, Alex said: “We stayed in a lot of caravans and a lot of houses.
“Always up mountains hours away from any kind of village or anything like that. One day I just thought okay, I can’t take this anymore.
“I knew that everything was already kind of in place to leave where we were so that If I were to have left they would be gone by the time police arrived.
“I’ve had one friend in the last six years that’s been my age. Everyone else has been a lot older than me.
“So I’m very comfortable talking to adults but with children my age, it’s kind of hard.”
The 17-year-old returned home on December 16 and enjoyed his first Christmas with his gran for six years.
Alex – who is now preparing to start college next month – said he had loved his first proper Christmas since he went missing.
He said: “When I was away, we never really celebrated Christmas because we were always on the move. It’s so nice to go to bed at night and wake up in the same place in the morning.
“I am loving the cold weather and the rain as well.”
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The whereabouts of Alex’s mum Melanie, 43, and grandad David, 64, are unknown after she left a rented house in the village of Villefort when her son was found.
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