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French mother jailed for five years for keeping baby daughter in boot of her car

A French appeals court on Wednesday sentenced a woman to five years in prison for having kept her baby daughter hidden for nearly two years, mainly in the maggot-infested boot of her car.

French mother jailed for five years for keeping baby daughter in boot of her car
Rosa Maria Da Cruz, right. Photo: AFP

The girl, now seven, was permanently traumatised by the ordeal, and today has the mental capacity of a two-to-three-year-old, according to doctors.

Prosecutors say she was kept in a carrycot for two years, usually in the trunk of her mother's station wagon and sometimes in an abandoned room in the family home in the Correze region of central France.

No one else knew of the baby's existence.

A mechanic discovered the infant in the filthy boot of Rosa Maria Da Cruz's car when she took it to be repaired.

Hearing a noise, he opened the trunk to discover the baby naked, filthy and dehydrated. She was surrounded by maggots and excrement.

Da Cruz, originally from Portugal, also has three other children, and her lawyers said she never accepted her fourth pregnancy.

Last November, after a week-long jury trial, a court sentenced Da Cruz to a five-year jail term, but three years were suspended.

She appealed the sentence, but so did prosecutors who sought a sentence of no less than 10 years.

On Wednesday, appeals judges in Limoges said Da Cruz should serve five years in prison and withdrew all parental authority over her daughter, now in foster care.

The girl suffers severe mental impairments, including irreversible autism, which medical experts attribute to sensory deprivation during her early months.

Da Cruz's partner Domingos Sampaio Alves, an unemployed bricklayer, insisted during a previous court appearance that he had no idea Da Cruz had given birth to another child.

“I don't know why she did this,” he told the court, describing her as “a good mother” to their other children, then aged nine, 14 and 15.

The couple were allowed to keep their three older children, whom a paediatrician described in court as having been “perfectly raised”.

During the trial, it emerged that Da Cruz had also initially hidden the pregnancies of two of her other children from her partner, not wanting to accept reality.

Her lawyers had argued for Da Cruz's acquittal, saying she was mentally unwell.

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CRIME

Teens charged in France over plot to attack Jewish targets: judicial source

French prosecutors have charged a 19-year-old man and a youth in the Paris region with planning a "terrorist" attack on Jewish targets, a judicial source told AFP on Friday.

Teens charged in France over plot to attack Jewish targets: judicial source

While no details on the pair have been released, French anti-terrorist investigators have expressed increased concern over the young age of some suspects detained in recent months for planning militant attacks.

The 19-year-old has been charged with “terrorist conspiracy” to commit attacks and the “acquisition and possession of arms for a terrorist enterprise,” said the judicial source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

READ ALSO: Anti-Semitism fears stalk Jewish voters’ choice in France

The youth aged under 18 was detained on June 13, the source said.

The pair made contact on social media and were planning a “a violent action notably aiming at Jewish targets,” said the source without giving details on the plot.

Anti-terrorism investigators say a growing number of youths have been held in recent months for preparing attacks.

READ ALSO: French election breakdown: TV debates, polling latest and anti-Semitism

“This is a necessarily worrying phenomenon,” senior anti-terrorist prosecutor Olivier Christen said at an evidentiary hearing on Wednesday.

French politicians have also condemned a growing number of attacks on the country’s Jewish community, the biggest outside Israel and the United States.

Outrage has been expressed over the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a park in the Paris suburbs last Saturday. Two 13-year-old boys have been charged with rape and making anti-Semitic insults.

Several protest rallies have been held in Paris and other French cities over the case which comes as France prepares for a national election in which the far-right National Rally party is tipped to make major gains. 

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