Despite being abandoned, the boy is still able to go to his nearby school every day, the court heard. He has been described as “very mature and very resilient”.
The teachers were reportedly unaware of his status and considered him a model student.
“He was smiling, a very good student, always clean and polite… and there was no sign that he had been abandoned,” Barbara Couturier, mayor of Nersac, told TF1.
His classmates said the boy was open about being abandoned.
“He told his classmates that he ate alone and took the bus alone. He did not go out, he stayed at home,” one student told French television.
Police first began investigating the case after concerned neighbors raised the alarm. His mother, who was separated from the boy's father and had custody of him, denied to officers and in court that she had abandoned her son.
“I'm not a chicken, but he's still my son,” she told the court. She had earlier claimed to the police that the boy had visited her at her boyfriend's house.
But analysis of her phone records and geolocation data proved these claims to be false and revealed that she only visited the apartment where her son lived twice during the last 12 months he was there.
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When asked why the property's refrigerator was empty and she did not have any personal belongings in the apartment, given that she claimed she had not left her child behind, the mother told officers that her toothbrush had fallen behind a shelf.
The child is now in foster care and is said to be refusing to see his mother, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison, including 12 months suspended, for abandoning a minor.
She is currently serving her sentence under house arrest and has been ordered to undergo counselling.
The Telegraph, London
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