A man was arrested and placed in police custody on Saturday in Saint-Etienne the day following his parents kidnapped a six-month-old girl, entrusted to child welfare, said a source close to investigation. According to the latter, it would be a close relation of the couple. On Friday, other members of the parents’ entourage had also been heard, some of them under police custody, then released.
Removed from CHU of Saint-Etienne, the child has still not been found this Saturday early evening, said the police who had momentarily located the vehicle of his parents a few hours earlier. The girl, presented as a very premature baby, was in care on a respirator when she was abducted, late Friday followingnoon, from the pediatric department of the North Hospital of Saint-Etienne by her parents of foreign origin, who deceived the vigilance of the staff of the establishment, according to the same source.
Placed with child welfare
Saturday, a police operation was launched on the national territory to find the girl, according to the parquet floor of Saint-Etienne. The kidnapping alert was not triggered because the parquet considered that the criteria, in particular that of endangering the child, “were not met”. “An order prohibiting the child from leaving the territory has been taken”, specified the deputy public prosecutor of the Republic of Saint EtienneAndré Merle, who entrusted the departmental security of the Loire with a preliminary investigation for “subtraction of a child from the authority to which he was entrusted”.
“This little girl is the subject of a temporary placement by a children’s judge with the Childhood Social Assistance because of educational deficiencies identified in her family”, it was further explained, adding that the ‘ASE herself entrusted her to the hospital in view of her state of health.
