A nine-year-old boy has been rescued after living locked in his father’s utility van in eastern France since 2024, a local prosecutor said.
The child has been hospitalized, and his father detained, prosecutor Nicolas Heitz said.
Police were on Monday last week alerted by a neighbor to the “sounds of a child” coming from a van in the village of Hagenbach, near the borders with Switzerland and Germany, Heitz said in a statement on Saturday.
Photo: AP
After forcing the van open, officers found the child “lying in a fetal position, naked, covered by a blanket on top of a mound of trash and near excrement,” Heitz said.
The boy was clearly malnourished and could no longer walk after being in a seated position for so long, he said.
The boy’s father told investigators that he put the child in the truck in November 2024 “to protect him,” because his partner wanted to send the then-seven-year-old to a psychiatric hospital, the prosecutor said.
There was no medical record that the boy had any psychiatric problems before he disappeared, and he had had good grades in school, Heitz said.
The boy told investigators that he had “big difficulties” with his father’s partner and thought his father “had no choice” but to lock him up, he said.
The boy said he had not showered since 2024, Heitz said.
The father was handed preliminary kidnapping and other charges and kept in custody. His partner denied knowledge that the boy was in the van, the prosecutor said.
She was handed preliminary charges, including for failure to help a minor in danger, and released under judicial supervision.
The boy’s 12-year-old sister and the 10-year-old daughter of his father’s partner were placed in the care of social services.
The prosecutor’s office is investigating whether others were aware of the boy’s detention.
Friends and family told investigators they thought the boy was in a psychiatric institution. His teachers were told he had transferred to a different school, the prosecutor’s office said.
The authorities have not released the names of the victim or his relatives.
Hagenbach residents contacted by the Associated Press expressed shock on Saturday over the cases and said they were unaware of the boy’s whereabouts, but did not want to discuss details.
The prosecutor declined to comment further.
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