A sexologist mother who allegedly abandoned her two young children in a forest nearly 1,500 miles from home bizarrely sang opera in court as her partner repeatedly shouted 'I love you'. Marine Rousseau, 41, and her partner Marc Ballabriga, 55, appeared in a Portuguese court on Friday facing charges of domestic violence and child abandonment.
Alleged abandonment in the woods
The couple, from Colmar in northeastern France, are accused of blindfolding their two children, aged three and five, in a forest near the towns of Alcacer do Sal and Comporta in Portugal and leaving them there. The children were found crying and alone on a rural road about 125 miles from where the parents were later located. Police tracked down Rousseau and Ballabriga at the O Vasco cafe near Lisbon approximately 48 hours after the alleged abandonment.
Courtroom drama
As Rousseau was escorted into Setubal courthouse near Lisbon, she was overheard singing opera. Her partner, who was bundled out of a police van just in front of her, shouted in French: 'Je vous aime' (I love you). Sources reported that Ballabriga acted violently after being taken into police custody, shouting at officers and attempting to damage his cell, while Rousseau spent hours singing.
The couple had been declared fugitives by France before their arrest on Thursday. The father of the two boys had reported them missing on May 11 after they vanished from their home in Colmar, near the German border. A judge is expected to decide on Saturday whether the pair will be remanded in prison.
