A French mother who ‘abandoned her children‘ in Portuguese woods is sent to the most notorious women’s prison in the country.
Marine Rousseau and stepfather Marc Ballabriga are accused of abandoning Barthélémy, five, and Zacharie, three, near Alcácer do Sal. France.
Rousseau, 41, was taken to Tire prison in Lisbon for custody on Saturday in Portugal Lusa News Agency reports.
Sexologia will not be able to leave her cell and cannot contact other prisoners. Ballabriga, 55, has been sent to Setúbal prison.
Tires, often the focus of true-crime documentaries, is home to around 450 inmates and hangs out with murderers and child abusers.
The closet has a nursery for pregnant prisoners, as well as a school, hairdressers and an area for making crafts, making rugs and using a loom.
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Rousseau and Ballabriga allegedly blindfolded the children and told them they could only remove them after finding a buried knife.
Barthélémy dug out the knife after a few minutes and gouged out their eyes only to find their parents gone, they told police.
They only had a change of clothes, two bottles of water, cookies, a pear and an orange.
Barthélémy and Zacharie were told by their parents that they were out in the woods to find a hidden toy.
The ‘terrified’ youths were found by Eugenia and Artur Quintas wandering the rural streets of Monte Novo do Sul at 7pm on Tuesday.
Arthur said SIC news that children ‘screamed and cried’ as they walked along National Road 253 (EN253).
“To trick the children, their mother blindfolded them and left them in the forest to play a game,” he said.
“They told him to go and look for a toy.”
The couple took the brothers to a nearby police station and after they were given a clean bill of health health from the doctors, they are now in custody.
The children’s father had reported them missing to the French police and accused Rousseau of kidnapping the children.
While the mother’s family reported that Rousseau had disappeared on May 11.
said prosecutor Jean Richert AFP: What was surprising was that she wasn’t home, she didn’t have to be, and she didn’t notify anyone.
“We managed to narrow down its location, successively in the south of France, to Spain and in Portugal, but unable to contact him.’
Rousseau and Ballabriga were arrested while sitting in a terraced cafe near the town of Fátima on Thursday.
Before they were sent to their respective prisons, Correio da Manhã reported that the pair could be heard in their separate cells ‘screaming at each other’.
The Setúbal District Court heard that the defendants were placed in custody as they were considered a flight risk.
Ballabriga, a former French gendarmerie officer, is also charged with aggravated assault.
Some of his last videos on social media before his arrest show him wandering through fields, filming animals and looking at the sky.
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