A man in eastern France has been charged with keeping his nine-year-old son locked in a van for more than a year.

The boy was found on Monday after neighbours in the town of Hagenbach, Alsace, heard “sounds of a child” coming from the van, which was parked in the common area of a block of flats.

He was lying naked under a blanket, on a pile of rubbish near human excrement, malnourished and unable to walk due to spending a long time in the same position, the state prosecutor said.

Under questioning, the 43-year-old father said he had kept the boy in the van since November 2024 to protect him from his 37-year-old partner who “wanted to put the child in psychiatric care,” the prosecutor said.

The father has not been named. The couple lived in the block of flats with the boy’s siblings – his 12-year-old sister and 10-year-old half-sister.

The boy told police that his father brought him food twice a day and left him bottles of water, according to Le Parisien newspaper.

He said he had to urinate in plastic bottles and defecate in bin bags, and that the last time he had a shower was at the end of 2024.

Neighbours told police that the boy seemed to have disappeared suddenly at the end of that year, but that they understood from the couple that he had been placed in care. Some said they heard noises from time to time in the van, but had been told it was a cat.

According to the father, his partner did not know the boy was in the van.

The man has been charged with the “sequestration and arbitrary detention of a minor” as well as depriving him of proper food and medical care. He has been remanded in custody.

His partner has been charged with “non-assistance to a minor in danger” and “non-denunciation of mistreatment of a minor.” She has been granted conditional bail.

The three children have been placed in temporary care pending the decision of a children’s court judge.