Overview
- Police discovered the boy lying on the bare floor of a metre-wide cupboard on Friday, May 22, after an anonymous tip alerted authorities to welfare concerns.
- Prosecutors say the child had been confined in the small space for about 15 days from around May 1 and was reportedly forced to use a basin as a toilet.
- The stepfather was arrested, charged with deprivation of care and violence against a minor, and placed in pre-trial detention after a judicial inquiry opened on May 24.
- The boy was taken to hospital and has been placed with a vetted third party while medical, psychological and urgent social assessments are carried out to determine protection for him and his siblings.
- The investigation has been assigned to gendarmes from the Pertuis company and prosecutors have not released information about the mother as inquiries continue.