THE devastated dad of two children who were allegedly abandoned in the Portuguese woods by their mother and step father has spoken out for the first time.
The “distraught” and “crying” on the side of the road in the forested area by a baker on his way to work near Alcácer do Sal.
Barthelemy and Zacharie, aged five and three, were found screaming and crying on a Portuguese rural road
The children with a local police officer Credit: Newsflash
say Barthélémy and Zacharie, aged five and three respectively, were ditched by their mother Marine Rousseau, 41, and stepdad Marc Ballabriga, 55, under the cruel guise of a treasure hunt.
The pair allegedly blindfolded the two boys before driving off.
Breaking his silence for the first time, the father of the two boys said he believed it would be just days before he could see his children again.
“It’s only a matter of days before I get my children back,” he said.
“I think about them every second since the Colmar police station contacted me to tell me they were missing.”
The dad – who has requested to remain anonymous – spoke to French TV channel Ici Alsace TV, saying he had kept his phone next to him at all hours of the day waiting for Portuguese authorities to confirm he could collect his children.
“My children will have to rebuild their lives, just as I rebuilt mine, and they don’t need to be constantly reminded of this tragedy,” he said.
“I’m not trying to defend or minimise what happened – it’s deeply shocking.”
Credit: Getty
The boys were found with a change of clothes and very little food
Ballabriga as he left court
Marine Rousseau being led from the court house
Both boys – who were found on Tuesday – are currently in temporary foster care until arrangements can be made for them to return to .
French authorities have also lodged a request for the return of the pair.
After divorcing Rousseau two years ago, the dad reportedly has the right to limited supervised visits with the boys.
He told French media that he would only speak again when he had been “reunited” with his children.
Cops caught up with Rousseau and Ballabriga on Thursday, 100 miles north of where they allegedly abandoned the young children.
A French-speaking pensioner had been chatting to the couple and became suspicious that they were the duo police were hunting down after the boys’ discovery.
The family had left on a road trip to Portugal after they had all been living together in Colmar, eastern .
Rousseau describes herself on social media as a “sexologist who helps traumatised individuals to regain serenity and sexual fulfilment”.
She and her new partner were cuffed at O Vasco cafe in Fátima.
On Saturday, Rousseau was heard singing to herself in a Setúbal court prior to her case proceeding.
The hearing went on until midnight.
She and Ballabriga are facing charges of child abandonment and endangerment.
Ballabriga is also facing additional charges of aggravated assault.
The pair were placed in pre-trial detention until their next court appearance.
Police say the couple told the children they were playing a game called “drive away the devil”.
They told the boys to only remove the blindfolds once they had found knives the couple claimed to have buried in the dirt.
While the children obeyed, the couple reportedly made a dash for it and left them to their fate with nothing more than a change of clothes, two pieces of fruit and two bottles of water on them.
The children had no form of identification on them when they were discovered by Alexandre Quintas.
The local baker alerted cops at around 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
“I realised straight away that they had been abandoned because of the backpacks, the way they had been made up,” he said.
The boys had been reported missing on May 11 by their father, after they vanished from their home in Colmar.
Rousseau, who is understood to have left another 16-year-old child at home before embarking on a 1,365-mile journey with the two young boys and her boyfriend, drove across .
The hunt for the family ramped up before they entered via the town of Miranda do Douro in the northeastern district of Braganca.
The couple will face probable extradition to France before being prosecuted in Portugal because of the European Arrest Warrants issued by their home country.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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