Abandoned French boy, nine, stole tomatoes to survive in unheated flat but attended school every day
by TheTelegraph
Abandoned French boy, nine, stole tomatoes to survive in unheated flat but attended school every day
by TheTelegraph
14 comments
***The Telegraph reports:***
A nine-year-old French boy abandoned for two years in a flat without heating or electricity was forced to steal tomatoes to survive but still managed to attend school every day.
The case has gripped France in recent days after grim details about the child’s abandonment emerged during a trial that ended with his mother being jailed for neglect.
A court in Angoulême heard how he had been left to fend for himself in the south-western village of Nersac between 2020 and 2022, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. His 39-year-old mother, identified only as Alexandra, lived with her boyfriend three miles away.
The boy survived by living off cookies, cakes and canned food that she would occasionally drop off, as well as tomatoes desperately pilfered from a neighbour’s garden, the court was told.
“I made a little garden for myself, and the little one came discreetly to take tomatoes to eat,” the neighbour told French news channel TF1.
**Mother told neighbours not to interfere**
“We told her [the mother] not to leave him alone, and she told us to mind our own business and that she was there.”
During winter months, the boy tried to keep warm by wrapping himself in three duvets because the apartment, part of a social housing block, was unheated and without electricity.
“How sad,” public prosecutor Anne Medioni said of the case. “This child had no way of washing himself with hot water.”
Despite his abandonment, the boy still managed to attend his nearby school every day, the court heard. He was described as “very mature and very resilient”.
Teachers were reportedly unaware of his situation and considered him to be a model student.
“He was smiling, a very good student, always clean, polite…no sign that he was abandoned,” Barbara Couturier, the mayor of Nersac, told TF1.
But fellow classmates said the boy was open about his abandonment.
“He told classmates he ate alone and took the bus alone. He didn’t go out, he stayed at home,” one student told French TV.
Police first began looking into the case after concerned neighbours raised the alarm. His mother, who is separated from the boy’s father and had custody of the boy, denied to officers and in court that she had abandoned her son.
**Boy now in foster care**
“I’m not a mother hen, but he’s still my son,” she told the court. She had earlier claimed to police that the boy visited her at her boyfriend’s home.
But analysis of her phone records and geolocation data proved those claims to be false and revealed she had only visited the apartment where her son lived twice in his final 12 months there.
**Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/24/boy-nine-stole-tomatoes-to-live-model-pupil/**
So you can’t drive a car without a theoretical and practical exam, but you can put a child on the world without knowing a thing about parenting?
Scumbag of a mother. This made my blood boil, honestly.
That boy Will be very responsible and successful if anyone gives him a chance.
I already know he wont ignore his Mother when that happens, even after all she had done.
Hard times makes Hard men, what a scum of a Mother.
The fact that the boy accepted the situation and remained cheerful while attending school as he believed he should is truly admirable. He knew he didn’t have what others around him had, but he still kept on going. This should be a message to any entitled people out there who think they deserve things handed to them. The happiest people in the world are quite often the people who expect the least from others.
The mother got a slap on the wrist. Ridiculous for what she did.
Kotaro lives alone should remain fiction… This is sad
Ultra-liberal and individualist country where a kid can stay alone 2 years without any neighbour asking questions
Poor kiddo. How can a mother do that to a son… I hope everything turns out for the little one, and he can get a good future for himself.
That kid is tough as hell. He’s going to grow up to he mightily impressive if he gets the nurturing he deserves.
Mental illness is such a terrible disease. It damages society and scars the immediate victims for life.
We also have no good way to diagnose it and treat it, or even classify it. The mother is clearly ill, but may be considered “normal” and left untreated.
She visited only twice and dropped off a years worth of cookies? I don’t understand the last paragraph.
And how dies her phone disprove where the boy went?
Not all People are the same, we have plenty of example in the world of People beeing sucesful after só many Hard times, i was not abandoned, but i did had an Hard time aswell with my father.
I do understand what your saying and that happens a lot, and you have 200% valid opinion, it leaves some scars.
I just sayd this because the fact the boy did not skipped school and presented himself clean and tidy at school and did not hide and shared what he was living with his schoolmates.
Kid has a strong Will and mentality.
>He was described as “very mature and very resilient”.
“Mature” is generally code for unable to be a kid due to extreme abuse or neglect.