A 39-year-old mother who allegedly left her 9-year-old son to fend for himself in an apartment for two years, bringing him only cold cans and cakes, has been sentenced to six months in prison for endangering his safety.
“This child had no way to wash with hot water! She must understand the damage she has caused to her son,” prosecutor Anne Médioni said last week at the court in Angoulême in western France, according to Charente Libre.
The mother, identified as Alexandra, was still in “denial” during her court appearance, accusing her of endangering her son's safety by leaving him to fend for himself in a rented house for almost two years (HLM). , between 2020 and 2022, French media reported.
According to the public prosecutor, who gave a shocking picture of the situation to court president Ancelin Nouaille, the boy only ate tomatoes that he had stolen from the neighbor's garden and boxes of cold jams and cakes that his mother had brought him.
Without electricity or heating, he slept under three blankets so as not to freeze, said “Charente Libre” and washed himself with cold water.
He went to school himself, so the school would not have noticed the situation the child was in.
During this time, his mother probably lived with her partner about 5 kilometers from the HLM, where the gendarmes did not find any of her personal belongings in what they said was a “very poorly equipped apartment” with a refrigerator. empty.
“My toothbrush fell behind the shelf,” the woman is said to have defended herself in court, according to French media.
It was neighbors who eventually alerted authorities after they noticed the boy was left alone.
“There is ample evidence that you abandoned your son,” the president noted.
According to French media, the woman was eventually sentenced to 18 months in prison for “abandonment of a minor endangering his safety,” 12 of which will be served on probation, for a total of six months with an electronic bracelet.