Abandoned French boy stole tomatoes to survive but attended school every day

The village of Nersac where the boy was left to fend for himself for two years by his mother Photo / Google

A 9-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 Angouleme 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 nearly 5km 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.

When questioned why the property’s fridge was empty and she had no personal belongings at the flat, given she claimed not to have abandoned her child, the mother reportedly told officers that her toothbrush had fallen behind a shelf.

The child is now in foster care and reportedly refuses to see his mother, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison, 12 of which were suspended, for abandonment of a minor.

She is currently serving the sentence under house arrest and has been ordered to undergo counselling.