After the conviction of his mother, who abandoned him, he rebuilds his life.
Erwann, a 9-year-old boy who had lived alone for two years between 2020 and 2022 in Charente, is “doing well” now, indicates the president of the local departmental council, Philippe Bouty, to BFMTV.
In January, Erwann's mother, prosecuted for neglecting a minor compromising her safety, was sentenced to eighteen months in prison, twelve of which were suspended.
His six-month sentence must be served under an electronic bracelet, and was accompanied by an obligation of care.
Erwann's story, revealed by La Charente Libre, aroused strong emotion.
The 5th grade schoolboy, then the 6th grade, had lived alone between the ages of 9 and 11, while his mother, a 36-year-old woman, had custody of him and lived only a few kilometers from him, with her partner.
The boy lived on biscuits, cans or tomatoes stolen from a nearby balcony.
He lived in an unheated apartment, without electricity, and went to school alone, still obtaining good results.
“Reassuring” news
His mother visited her son from time to time to give him some foodstuffs.
Sometimes, neighbors of the boy's residence also helped him.
“I’m not a mother hen, but he’s still my son,” she declared during her hearing.
Since this conviction, Erwann has been placed in a foster family and is receiving psychological support.
The news about him is “reassuring”, explains Philippe Bouty, president of the Charente departmental council, to BFMTV.
“He is doing well, he indulges in pleasures such as cooking, baking and drawing.
He has very good results at school, he is fully flourishing in his studies,” he says.
Read alsoChild abandoned by his mother in Charente: “It’s an example of incredible resilience”
Good news which reflects the remarkable strength of this schoolboy.
“This boy is an example of overadaptation and incredible resilience,” child psychiatrist Christine Barois already observed in January with Le Parisien.
“When we see how he is adapted, it is because he had surely sufficiently integrated the basics of the codes of society and its functioning for things to go well, and that is what means that no one account of his situation”, added Gilles-Marie Valet, child psychiatrist and author of “The age of reason, psychology of children aged 7 to 12” (Larousse editions).