French man, 43, kept son, 9, in van for nearly 1.5 years, boy unable to walk due to being seated for too long

A French man, 43, is accused of abuse after his malnourished nine-year-old son was rescued from a locked van.

The boy was allegedly locked inside the vehicle belonging to the man, who is his father, since November 2024.

A neighbour alerted police to “sounds of a child” coming from the vehicle in the village of Hagenbach, in eastern France near the borders of Switzerland and Germany.

Boy found living in unsanitary conditions

The van was forced open on Apr. 13.

Officers found a child “lying in a foetal position, naked, covered by a blanket on top of a mound of trash and near excrement”, a French prosecutor said.

The child was unable to walk as he had been sitting down for too long.

The man told the police that he had kept the child in the van since November 2024.

The man claimed that he wanted to protect the boy from his 37-year-old partner, who “wanted to put the child in psychiatric care”, the prosecutor said.

His partner apparently did not know the boy was in the van all along.

Ate and defecated in van

The boy told police his father brought him food twice a day and was given bottles of water, Le Parisien newspaper reported.

He said he had to urinate in plastic bottles and defecate in bin bags.

The boy said the last time he took a shower was at the end of 2024.

The couple lived in a block of flats.

They have three children in total: The boy, his 12-year-old sister, and 10-year-old half-sister.

The children have been placed in temporary care.

Charged

The man has been charged with the “sequestration and arbitrary detention of a minor”, as well as depriving him of proper food and medical care.

He was held in custody.

His partner has been charged with “non-assistance to a minor in danger” and “non-denunciation of mistreatment of a minor” and has been granted conditional bail.

Top photos from Google Maps & hagenbach.fr