April 11 (UPI) — French authorities arrested a man and his partner after discovering the man’s nine-year-old son in a van, which he’d been forced to live in since 2024.
Police said the boy was found in the vehicle amid a pile of trash, naked and lying in the fetal position when they opened the van doors after a neighbor said they heard “the sounds of a child” from inside it, The Guardian and Fox News reported.
A prosecutor, Nicolas Heitz, told reporters that police were called to a French village called Hagenbach, located near the borders of Switzerland and Germany, and that the boy was malnourished and could not walk because he’d been forced to stay seated for at least a year-and-a-half.
His 43-year-old father, whose name has not been released, told police that he’d locked the boy in the van to prevent his partner from placing the nine-year-old in a psychiatric treatment facility.
The man and his 37-year-old partner lived in an apartment in the village with the nine-year-old, as well as the boy’s 12-year-old sister and 10-year-old half-sister.
The boy told police that his father brought him food twice a day, as well as bottles of water, but he had not showered since November 2024 when his father decided to hide him in the van.
He also told police that he would urinate in the plastic bottles and defecate in garbage bags.
The boy reportedly had no record of psychiatric conditions, although teachers were told he had transferred schools and neighbors were under the impression he had been sent to a psychiatric facility.
The father has been arrested and charged for detaining the child in the van and for depriving him of food and medical care, while his partner was charged with not helping the mistreated child but was released on bail after their arrest.
All three of the children have been placed in temporary care.
