A seven-year-old boy lived alone for two years in an unheated flat after his mother abandoned him to go live with her boyfriend.
The child lived alone from the ages of seven until nine, in a council flat in Nersac, a village on the outskirts of Angouleme in the west of France.
According to French media, the boy's mother, 39, had moved three miles away to live with her new partner.
During the two-year period the boy had to live without hot water, heating or electricity, washing himself in cold water and using sleeping bags and blankets to keep warm.
The boy lived for two years by himself
Flickr
The only way he would eat was by stealing tomatoes from a nearby balcony and scavenging for food from neighbours.
Those neighbours expressed their concerns to the boy's mother over the years, who had told them to mind their business and that she was caring for him.
It took locals two years to report the situation to the police as the child kept up appearances really well.
He always appeared washed and clean, went to school and got good grades.
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The boy kept up appearances really well going to school and getting good grades
Flickr
Neighbours spoke about their guilt at not realising what was going on, blaming modern life for allowing the neglect to continue for so long.
A resident said: "When there was a family and a village around the family, if the mother neglected the child, it didn't matter too much, because the rest of the family and the whole village took care of the child. It's not like that any more."
The town's mayor Barbara Couturier told local media that the boy was a "good student" despite living alone and that no one would be able to tell that he was living alone.
She said: "I think it was also a kind of protection that he put around himself to say 'everything is fine'."
A classmate of the boy's told a French TV station: "He told his mates that he ate his meals alone and took the bus alone. He didn't go out and stayed home all the time."
The unidentified mother was sentenced to six months in prison for abandoning and endangering a minor.
At the trial, the mother insisted she had lived with her son, but this was disproven by her mobile data which showed she had hardly been at the flat.
The boy's father, who lived in another town, was not charged.
