No pyjamas, no toothbrush, just unwashed clothes… Prosecutors today unveiled details of the “very very long story” of the 9-year-old child who was kept locked up for a year by his father in a van in Alsace, in eastern France.
In his first press conference since the case was revealed last Friday, the prosecutor of Milhouse (Alsace), Nicolas Aitz, clarified that the child’s father, who is being prosecuted for illegal detention and deprivation of care and food, faces a 30-year sentence.
The man, aged 43, who has already been remanded in custody, admitted to the charges.
Police officers discovered the boy on April 6 in Hagenbach, a small community 20km from Milhouse, after being alerted by a resident.
The child, “pale and visibly malnourished”, “was naked, lying in a fetal position, covered with a blanket on a pile of rubbish and near excrement”, the prosecutor had described in a press release. The child has since been hospitalized in Milhouse.
Today, the prosecutor gave details about the statements of the protagonists, starting with the child himself, who recounted the nightmare he experienced to qualified investigators.
Living in a blended family, he explained that he had a “very bad relationship” with his stepmother, whom he described as “his worst enemy and a vicious person” who wanted him admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
His father was then “forced” to “put him in the van” in September 2024 because he “had no choice”, the child continued, stressing that he did not want to live in his mother’s home as she was suffering from psychological problems.
His “father brought him water and food twice a day, frozen food in general,” the boy described. He had one set of clothes and had to urinate in empty bottles.
His father regularly emptied the garbage. But the boy also said that “his father no longer washed his clothes and he no longer had pajamas to wear.” He slept on a mattress and no longer had a toothbrush. In his room, his toys were placed in a cardboard box.
The stepmother, aged 37, faces a seven-year jail term for failing to assist a minor under 15 who is in danger and failing to report abuse and deprivation suffered by a minor under 15. She denies the charges.
Having also testified to authorities, the child’s mother admitted that she had been hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital between May 2022 and January 2024. The couple finally separated in October 2022.
