Portugal Police Arrest Mother and Stepfather After Two French Boys Found Alone Near Alcacer do Sal

A man and a woman reported by local media to be the mother and stepfather of two young French boys were arrested after the children were found alone and in tears by the side of a road in southern Portugal near the town of Alcacer do Sal on Tuesday.

“- Published A man and a woman reported by local media to be the mother and stepfather of two young French boys found alone and in tears by the side of a road in southern Portugal have been arrested”

BBC

Police said the boys, both under five, were carrying backpacks with food and water but no identity documents, and the boys’ father had reported them missing from their home in Colmar in eastern France on 11 May.

BBC

Portugal’s National Republican Guard said its officers arrested a 41-year-old woman and a man aged 55, and said they were being investigated for the crimes of domestic violence, exposure to danger, and abandonment.

The driver who found the boys said he fed them before alerting the police, and the BBC reported that police in Portugal and France had opened inquiries and said they had not reached any conclusions at this stage.

Local reporting described the boys’ account as a “game” in which they were blindfolded and told they could remove their eye covers only once they had found a knife they had buried in the soil.

The Metro.co.uk account said the elder brother dug around the dirt trying to follow the instructions before finally removing both their blindfolds, only to realise they had been left in the woods.

blue News

Police said they arrested Marine Rousseau, 41, and Marc Ballabriga, 55, on suspicion of domestic violence and child abuse on Wednesday, after the siblings were found between the popular seaside resort towns of Alcácer do Sal and Comporta in Portugal.

Artur Quintas, a local baker, told Correio da Manhã that the children were “They were crying, they were terrified. They were crying and calling for their father,” and he said the oldest one told him their father and mother had left without taking them.

Portuguese police said the investigation led to the central town of Fatima, where the GNR detained the 41-year-old woman and a 55-year-old man, “both suspected of abandoning the two children found alone”.

“Discovered on a remote country roadToddlers abandoned in Portugal - mother and stepfather caught dpa 21”

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The Devdiscourse report said the woman was being investigated in the judicial court of Grandola for the crimes of exposure to danger and of abandonment, while the BBC had earlier said France had issued a pan-European request for help after the father reported the boys missing on 11 May.

Euronews reported that the boys were rescued on Tuesday by a passing motorist near the resort town of Comporta with backpacks containing food and water but no identity documents, and said Portuguese police arrested the mother in Fatima along with a 55-year-old man on suspicion of abuse, endangerment and abandonment.

Euronews also quoted French prosecutor Jean Richert saying, “What was surprising was that she wasn't home, she had no reason not to be, and she didn't notify anyone,” as the Portuguese attorney general’s office told AFP a court was investigating alongside the police inquiry and the children were taken to hospital for observation.