A French mother accused of abandoning her two young children blindfolded in a Portuguese forest has been sent to the country's most infamous women's prison. Marine Rousseau, 41, and her partner Marc Ballabriga, 55, are alleged to have left Barthélémy, five, and Zacharie, three, near Alcácer do Sal in France.
Rousseau was taken to Tires Prison in Lisbon for pretrial detention on Saturday, according to Portugal's Lusa News Agency. The prison, often featured in true-crime documentaries, houses around 450 inmates and is associated with murderers and child abusers. Rousseau will be confined to her cell and prohibited from contacting other inmates. Ballabriga has been sent to Setúbal Prison.
The couple allegedly blindfolded the children and told them they could only remove the blindfolds once they found a buried knife. Barthélémy dug up the knife after several minutes, only to discover their parents had vanished. The children had only a change of clothing, two bottles of water, cookies, a pear, and an orange. They were found wandering rural roads by Eugenia and Artur Quintas at 7pm on Tuesday, screaming and crying.
The children were taken to a police station and, after being medically cleared, placed in foster care. The father had reported them missing to French police, accusing Rousseau of child abduction. Rousseau and Ballabriga were arrested while sitting at a cafe near Fátima on Thursday. The Setúbal District Court ordered pretrial detention, citing flight risk. Ballabriga, a former French gendarmerie officer, also faces aggravated assault charges.
