The incident took place in the commune of Aire-sur-la-Lys, located in northern French Pas-de-Calais department at about 2:45 am on Monday. The boy, identified as Yanis, was found some 200 meters from the house of his stepfather, 30, and his mother, 22, police said, Le Parisien newspaper reports. La Voix Du Nord newspaper, however, reported that the house belonged to the boys’ stepfather and his mother lived at a different place.
The couple, which had not been known to police before, were unemployed. Married since August 2015, they did not have any other children.
Rescuers from CODIS (Departmental Operational Center of Fire and Rescue) who arrived at the scene of the incident said the boy died of “cardiac arrest.” Police stated that the stepfather alerted them about the incident, saying that the child was found unconscious.
The child’s parents were taken for questioning on suspicion of “voluntary violence causing death without intention” into police custody in nearby Saint-Omer commune, police said. French media cited sources as saying the boy had a broken nose and traces of old injuries.
“This was a sanction-punishment, making the child go out in the middle of the night” because he urinated in bed, Patrick Leleu, the prosecutor of Saint-Omer, said.
The autopsy on Monday revealed that the child died of various skull injuries. Police, however, have not revealed the circumstances of the death.
Police said that it was his stepfather who put the punishment of forcing the child outdoors into practice. He reportedly followed the boy by bike.
The stepfather claimed that Yanis “was suffering from enuresis… and after a new episode of enuresis he punished him by ordering to go outside and to make circles around the house.”
The couple’s neighbours described Yanis’s parents as ordinary people, saying that they have not been aware of any violence towards the child.
Courtesy: RT
