A retired couple was placed in police custody for
“abandonment of minors” on Monday April 1 in Alès (Gard),
Le Figaro
learned
from the Alès public prosecutor's office, confirming information from
Midi Libre
. One of their three grandchildren, a 2-year-old girl, fell from the third floor while she was locked on the balcony. When help arrived, the grandmother was found drunk in the apartment, the prosecution said.
Luckily, the little girl landed on a hedge at the foot of the building. His vital prognosis was in jeopardy at the time of the events, but is no longer so this Tuesday, indicates Abdelkrim Grini, prosecutor of the Alès court. The little victim still suffered from head trauma.
4-year-old big brother saved by a neighbor
The girl's big brother, aged 4, also tried to climb over the balcony where he was also locked up. However, a woman who witnessed the scene then began to
“scream”
while pressing all the buttons on the building's intercom. A neighbor, alerted by this woman's cries, then rushed into the apartment in question and detained the little boy at the last minute.
The grandmother, present at the time of the tragedy, did not notice anything. And for good reason: an alcohol test carried out on her revealed three grams of alcohol per liter of blood, reports Abdelkrim Grini.
Placement in social services
The grandfather, for his part, was
“outside”
, with their third grandchild, aged one. During his interview with investigators, the latter, returning almost an hour after the events, claimed not to have noticed that his wife was drinking in their apartment. An argument that the prosecutor refutes: given the state of drunkenness of the retiree, the latter must have been drinking for a very long time, and it would seem
“impossible”
not to have noticed it. The grandfather was then also placed in police custody, following his
“incoherent statements.”
The three children will be placed in social services, further indicates the Alès prosecutor's office, specifying that originally, they had been taken from their parents and that the grandparents had then taken custody.