Get you up to speed: Mother arrested after brothers, 5 and 3, ‘blindfolded and abandoned’ in woods | News World
The parents of two young boys were arrested in Portugal after abandoning them in a wooded area during a purported game. Marine Rousseau, 41, and Marc Ballabriga, 55, face allegations of domestic violence and child abuse following the boys’ discovery between Alcácer do Sal and Comporta.
Police discovered the boys near Alcácer do Sal and Comporta, following a report from a local baker who identified them as abandoned. The children’s birth father had previously filed a child abduction report in France after their mother allegedly vanished with them two weeks prior to the incident.
Marine Rousseau, 41, and Marc Ballabriga, 55, have been arrested by local authorities on suspicion of domestic violence and child abuse after allegedly abandoning their two young sons in the woods. Following an investigation prompted by a child abduction report filed by the children’s birth father, the pair remain silent as police continue to gather information on the circumstances surrounding their actions.
What remains unclear — Authorities have not disclosed whether further legal action will be taken against the parents following their arrest.
Mother and stepfather arrested after brothers, aged five and three, found abandoned in Portuguese woods
The boys were crying for their father (Picture: GNR)
The parents of two young boys found wandering alone down a country path hundreds of miles away from home have been arrested.
The siblings were crying for their father when police found them between the popular seaside resort towns of Alcácer do Sal and Comporta in Portugal.
The French brothers told authorities their mother, 41-year-old Marine, and stepfather Marc had driven them to remote woodland and told them they were going to play a game to ‘drive away the devil.’
Blindfolding the boys, they told them that they could only remove their eye covers once they had found a knife they had buried in the soil.
The elder brother dug around the dirt trying to follow their instructions before finally removing both their blindfolds, only to realise they had been left in the woods.
Police said they arrested Marine Rousseau, 41, and Marc Ballabriga, 55, on suspicion of domestic violence and child abuse on Wednesday.
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The two were travelling in a car with French license plates, which was found parked next to a cafe.
CNN Portugal reported that the couple had been in the cafe for ‘several hours’.
The children’s mother and stepfather remained silent after being approached by officers.
The boys were found by local baker Artur Quintas driving along the remote track with his wife, when he spotted the boy’s blonde hair just before sunset on Tuesday.
He told Portuguese outlet Correio da Manhã: ‘They were crying, they were terrified. They were crying and calling for their father.
‘The oldest one told me that he and his brother had gotten lost in the forest and that their father and mother had left without taking them.’
Their hands were covered in dirt, and one of them had a knee injury.
Portuguese police ask the kids some questions as they try to track down their parents
(Picture: GNR)
He added: ‘I saw that they were each carrying a backpack. I immediately realised they had been abandoned.’
Their backpacks had nothing more than a change of clothes, an apple, an orange and two bottles of water.
The belongings found on the two boys (Picture: GNR)
Still believing they were part of a game, the children wandered the desolate area, which can reach 30C in Spring, before finally being found by the driver.
It is thought the siblings were living in Colmar, eastern France, before their mother vanished with them around two weeks ago driving them to Portugal.
It has since emerged that their birth father, who is separated from Marine, had also filed a child abduction report to French police. Colmar prosecutor Jean Richert told Le Parisien: ‘He’s like everyone else, he doesn’t understand.’
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