Portuguese court keeps couple in custody after boys abandoned roadside

A Portuguese court ordered Marine Rousseau and Marc Ballabriga to remain in custody after the couple was accused of abandoning two young boys on a roadside in southern Portugal, a case now straddling child protection, criminal law and cross-border coordination.

The children, ages four and five, were found on Tuesday near Alcácer do Sal and Comporta in the Alentejo region after a passing motorist saw them alone and crying and alerted authorities. Their backpacks reportedly contained food and water, but no identity documents, underscoring how quickly the case moved from a welfare emergency to a wider investigation into how the boys were left without oversight.

Portuguese police detained Rousseau, a 41-year-old French national, and Ballabriga, 55, in Fátima after a passer-by tipped officers off at a café. The pair were brought before a court in Setúbal for questioning and remand proceedings, where prosecutors sought pretrial detention on allegations including child abuse, endangerment, abandonment and aggravated assault. The court accepted the request and ordered both suspects held pending trial.

The children were taken to hospital, where they were reported to be in good health, and later discharged. They are now in the care of child protection authorities, which places their immediate welfare under the Portuguese system while investigators continue to determine how they came to be abandoned and whether the case crosses into broader criminal conduct.

The boys had been reported missing from their home in Colmar, in eastern France, by their father about 10 days before the arrests. French authorities issued a Europe-wide request to help locate Rousseau and the children, and the Colmar prosecutor’s office opened a judicial inquiry into child neglect. In Portugal, the case began with the National Republican Guard before being transferred to the Polícia Judiciária, which said it was also examining suspicions of international kidnapping.

The case has highlighted the strain that foreign-national cases can place on police, courts and social services when children cross borders before officials can coordinate a response. Ballabriga was identified in French media as a former police officer convicted in 2010 of harassment and domestic violence against the mother of his daughter, a detail that adds another layer of scrutiny to a case already testing how quickly authorities can move to protect children once they are found.