A ‘good student’ who lived alone in a flat for two years

In France, a nine-year-old boy was left alone for two years in an apartment without a heater. He lived alone in an apartment. Neighbors kept giving him food.

The boy’s mother abandoned him in 2020. The woman has been sentenced to six months in prison for the crime, which she will serve at home.

The son of the said woman lived alone in his flat. There was no electricity or hot water in the flat. During this period he continued to go to school. The teachers never doubted his case as he was a good student.

The boy, who lives in the Nersac area near Angouleme in southwestern France, subsisted mostly on cakes and canned cold food, according to the Charente-Libre newspaper. He occasionally managed to steal tomatoes from a neighbor’s balcony.

The newspaper wrote that the boy continued to use cold water. He often used a sleeping bag and had to put three blankets over him. Neighbors helped him by giving him food. In 2022, the neighbor, who remained anonymous, informed the authorities about the situation.

Investigation revealed that the boy’s mother was living three miles away with her new boyfriend.

The court was told that the 39-year-old woman, who was charged with abandoning her minor son and endangering his life, visited him from time to time to feed him.

The boy’s father, who lived in another city, was not charged. He was 11 years old when the concerned authorities took over the care of the boy.

When neighbors raised concerns with the boy’s mother, she said she was taking care of him and that she should stay out of their business.

The school did not raise the alarm because the boy appeared normal and clean and scored good marks in exams. Narsac Mayor Barbara Couturier says the boy appeared normal.

Speaking to local media, he said: ‘He was smiling. He is a very good student. He is clean and polite. By no means does he seem to have been left to his own devices. I challenge anyone who can say that he could have known about this situation.’

The boy’s mother told the court that her son lived with her. But an analysis of his phone records showed that his phone was hardly ever in the flat.

A villager told local television that ‘if there was a family or a village close to the family, neglect by the mother would not have been a big deal because the rest of the family and the whole village would have taken care of the boy, but now This is not the case.’

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