Featured Image Credit: SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Crime, Mental Health, News, World News
Madison Burgess
Topics: Crime, Mental Health, News, World News
Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse which some readers may find distressing.
A nine-year-old boy has been rescued after being locked in his father's van for over a year in eastern France, according to the local prosecutor.
The shocking news broke this week after the child was found living in the utility van since 2024, malnourished and unable to walk.
He has been taken to the hospital, while his father has been detained.
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According to a statement from the prosecutor in the case, Nicolas Heitz, on Saturday (11 April) police were alerted by a neighbour to 'sounds of a child' coming from a van on Monday in the village of Hagenbach, near the borders of Switzerland and Germany.
After forcing the van open, they allegedly found a child' 'lying in a foetal position, naked, covered by a blanket on top of a mound of trash and near excrement'.
The statement said that the nine-year-old was clearly malnourished and could no longer walk because he had been in a seated position for so long.
His father told investigators that he put the child in the van in November 2024 when he was seven years old 'to protect him' because his partner wanted to send the boy to a psychiatric hospital.
However, the prosecutor said there was no medical record that the boy had any psychiatric problems before he disappeared, and said he had good grades in school.
Meanwhile, the boy himself told investigators that he had 'big difficulties' with his dad's partner, and thought his father 'had no choice' but to lock him up.
He also said that, shockingly, he had not showered since 2024.
The father has been handed preliminary kidnapping and other charges and kept in custody, while his partner denied knowing the boy was in the van, according to the prosecutor.
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 put in the care of social services.
Now, the prosecutor’s office is investigating whether others were aware of the horrifying situation, after friends and family told investigators they thought the boy was in a psychiatric institution.
His teachers were also allegedly told that he had transferred to a different school.
The awful story has shocked residents of the small village, and as per Sky News, one neighbour, called Danielle, said: "We don't understand it. It's horrific, there are no words."
She added: "I never once noticed anything, never heard anything...It feels like we're living in a movie or a dream, and we keep thinking, 'tomorrow I'll wake up, and maybe it's not real'. We just can't comprehend it."
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 10am-8pm Monday to Friday. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111, 24/7.