A five-year-old boy has been found dead in northern France after his step-father allegedly put the young child outside the family home in just his underwear to punish him for wetting the bed.
French police in the Aire-sur-la-Lys region of France say the boy, who was discovered in the street in his underwear, suffered a cardiac arrest.
The parents of the five-year-old, known only as Yanis, have been in police custody since the discovery of his lifeless body just 200 yards from his house. Initial results of an autopsy carried out yesterday at the Lille Forensic Institute reveal that the little boy had suffered head injuries, either due to a fall or from blows received.
Saint-Omer prosecutor Patrick Leleu told AFP that the incident was linked to,
“a punishment in the middle of the night because he had urinated in bed.”
According to the AFP, an autopsy carried out on Monday afternoon revealed that Yanis’ death was due to cardiac arrest but head injuries, attributed to one or more falls or to violence, were also noted. It is believed the boy’s nose had also been broken. A case of on-going child-abuse is suspected in light of the autopsy findings.
The child’s mother (23) and step-father (30), who are both unemployed, have been married since August 2015, and have no other children. French investigators say that the young boy’s step-father alerted emergency services after he discovered Yanis was unconscious.
The couple are due to appear before prosecutors this morning.
