Mum who abandoned children in woods sent to Portugal’s infamous women’s prison | News World

A French mum who ‘abandoned her children’ within the Portuguese woods has been sent to the country’s most infamous women’s prison.

Marine Rousseau and stepfather Marc Ballabriga are accused of ditching Barthélémy, five, and Zacharie, three, near Alcácer do Sal in France.

Rousseau, 41, was sent to the Tires Prison in Lisbon for pretrial detention on Saturday, Portugal’s Lusa News Agency reports.

The sexologist will probably be unable to depart her cell and can’t contact other inmates. Ballabriga, 55, has been sent to Setúbal Prison.

Tires, often the main target of true-crime documentaries, is home to around 450 inmates and is related to murderers and child abusers.

The lock-up has a daycare facility for pregnant inmates in addition to a college, hairdresser and an area to do crafts, make rugs and use a loom.

Rousseau and Ballabriga allegedly blindfolded the kids and told them they may only remove them once that they had found a buried knife.

Barthélémy dug up the knife after several minutes and took off their blindfolds only to search out their parents were gone, they told police.

All that they had on them were a change of clothing, two bottles of water, cookies, a pear and an orange.

Barthélémy and Zacharie were told by their parents that they were out within the woods to search out a hidden toy.

The ‘terrified’ kids were found by Eugenia and Artur Quintas wandering the agricultural roads of Monte Novo do Sul at 7pm on Tuesday.

Artur told SIC Notícias that the kids were ‘screaming and crying’ as they walked along National Road 253 (EN253).

‘To trick the kids, their mom blindfolded them and left them within the forest to play a game,’ he said.

‘They told them to go and search for a toy.’

The couple took the brothers to a close-by police station and, after being given a clean bill of health by doctors, are actually in foster care.

The kids’s father had reported them missing to the French police and accused Rousseau of kid abduction.

While the mother’s family reported Rousseau had vanished on May 11.

Prosecutor Jean Richert told AFP: What was surprising was that she wasn’t home, she had no reason to not be, and he or she didn’t notify anyone.

‘We managed to narrow down her whereabouts, successively within the south of France, in Spain and in Portugal, but without with the ability to contact her.’

Rousseau and Ballabriga were arrested while sitting in a terraced cafe near town of Fátima on Thursday.

Before being sent to their respective prisons, Correio da Manhã reported the couple might be heard of their separate cells ‘shouting at one another’.

Setúbal District Court heard that the defendants were placed in pre-trial detention as they’re considered flight risks.

Ballabriga, a former French gendarmerie officer, can be accused of aggravated assault.

A few of his final social media videos before his arrest show him wandering fields, filming animals and staring up on the sky.

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