In France, a nine-year-old boy was left abandoned in an unheated apartment for two years after his mother relocated to live with her boyfriend three miles away. His mother, who departed in 2020, has been sentenced to a six-month prison term, to be served at her home. During this period, the boy resided alone in their council flat, lacking electricity and hot water. Remarkably, he independently managed to attend school without arousing suspicion due to his good academic performance.
According to Charente Libre newspaper, the boy sustained himself primarily on cakes and cold tinned food, occasionally resorting to taking tomatoes from a neighboring balcony. He coped with washing in cold water, often wrapping himself in a sleeping bag and relying on three blankets for warmth.
Neighbors supported him by providing food until an anonymous report was made to authorities in 2022. Subsequent investigations revealed the mother’s residence three miles away with her new boyfriend. The 39-year-old faced charges of abandoning and endangering a minor. Although she occasionally visited her son with food, she was convicted and sentenced.
The boy’s father, residing in another town, was not charged, and the child was taken into care at the age of 11. Concerns raised by neighbors were dismissed by the mother, who insisted she was caring for her son and asked them to stay out of her business.
The school did not detect the alarming situation as the boy appeared normal, clean, and excelled academically. Barbara Couturier, the mayor of Nersac, expressed disbelief, stating, “He was smiling, a very good pupil, always clean and polite. Nothing suggested he was abandoned.”
In court, the mother claimed her son lived with her, but phone records contradicted this, showing her phone rarely at the flat. A villager noted the shift from communal care for children, stating, “When there was a family and a village around the family, if the mother neglected the child, it didn’t matter too much, because the rest of the family and the whole village took care of the child. It’s not like that anymore.”