A nineyearold child lived alone in an apartment in Nersac, a village near Angoulême, France, between 2020 and 2022. According to French media, the boy was abandoned by his mother, who went to live with her boyfriend about five kilometers away.
The woman is 39 years old and could not be identified. She was sentenced to six months in prison for abandoning a minor and placing him in a dangerous situation. No charges were filed against the boy's father, who lives in another city.
Even though he was alone and had no hot water, heating or electricity at certain times, the boy went to school every day and did his homework.
While living alone, he took cold showers and wrapped himself in sleeping bags and blankets to survive the harsh French winter. In addition, he stole tomatoes from a local store and rummaged through neighbors' belongings looking for food.
After the child's mother expressed her concern, the neighborhood received a response that she cared about her son and that neighbors should care about her life, according to The Times newspaper. Therefore, there was no choice but to take the case to the police.
The municipality told French media that it had not previously recognized the situation because the boy went to school every day, was always clean and did his homework.
The city's mayor, Barbara Couturier, claimed that no one could determine what happened because the child appeared to be fine. “I think it was a kind of protection that he built around himself, as if to say that everything was going to be okay,” he told France Bleu newspaper.
At trial, the mother claimed she lived with her son, but was refuted by police, who produced phone records showing she rarely went to the apartment where the child lived.
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