The young boy, who has not been named, was discovered naked and lying in the foetal position in a van in the French village of Hagenbach a year after his dad locked him in
A 9-year-old boy who was left locked inside his dad’s utility van for a year was rescued this week, prosecutors said, after neighbours heard the “sounds of a child” coming from the vehicle.
The young boy was rescued and his dad detained after he was discovered in eastern France, having been locked inside the van since 2024. Police said they 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 found a child “lying in a fetal position, naked, covered by a blanket on top of a mound of trash and near excrement”.
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The child was clearly malnourished and could no longer walk, because he had been in a seated position for so long, prosecutor Nicolas Heitz said in a statement on Saturday. 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 boy to a psychiatric hospital, the prosecutor said. The boy was seven at the time.
The prosecutor said there was no medical record that the boy had any psychiatric problems before he disappeared, and that the boy had had good grades in school. 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, according to the prosecutor. He said he hadn’t showered since 2024.
The man, who has not been identified, was charged with the “sequestration and arbitrary detention of a minor”, the BBC reports, as well of depriving him of proper food and medical care, and has been remanded in custody.
The broadcaster also reported that neighbours told police the boy appeared to have disappeared suddenly at the end of 2024, and understood from the couple that he had been placed in care.
Some said they had heard noises from the van from time to time, but had been told they came from a cat. His partner denied knowledge that the boy was in the van, according to the prosecutor.She has been charged with “non-assistance to a minor in danger” and “non-denunciation of mistreatment of a minor.”
The partner has been granted conditional bail. 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. The prosecutor’s office is investigating whether others were aware of the locked-up boy. 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, according to the prosecutor’s office. Authorities did not release the names of the victim or family members.
