14 DAY TRIAL // A woman in France has been raising her daughter in a car trunk, officials say. The girl was found in a pile of garbage and feces, and she was in a terrible state.
She was recovered in the town of Terrasson when the mother brought in the vehicle for repairs. Workers heard the sounds coming from the boot and found the child.
"The baby girl was laying on garbage bags at the bottom of the trunk … crying and trying to get some fresh air because not only did it smell, but it was also hermetic," Garage director Denis Latour describes.
"I'm still having trouble sleeping, it was a horrifying sight, seeing this little girl in her own excrement, not able to hold up her head, white as a sheet," Mechanic Guillaume Iguacel adds. He was the one who first laid eyes on the baby.
The infant's age is estimated at somewhere between 15 and 23 months, Sky News writes. She is anemic, underdeveloped and extremely dehydrated.
"We were deeply shocked because she didn't find this abnormal. We told her to remove the little girl (from the boot) and give her something to drink right away," Iguacel notes.
A report by prosecutor Jean-Pierre Laffite clarifies that "was hidden, it seems since birth, and more seriously, she is suffering from significant (developmental) delays."
The mother was trying to hide from the father the fact that she had given birth. The pair are both unemployed and have three more children. The Portuguese woman had been keeping the baby in the car.
"We had the impression this woman lived in her car. She never left it," a neighbor says.
Both mother and father have been charged with child abuse and endangering a minor, counts that carry a 10-year maximum penalty.