Police in Paris discovered two boys living in squalid conditions in an unlit cellar while the rest of their family lived in comparative luxury upstairs, it emerged today.
The boys, named as Damien, 12, and Hugo, 10, by authorities, had been forced to sleep on bare mattresses surrounded by their own filth for the past three years while their father, 39, step-mother, 44, and her seven-year-old son lived upstairs.
They were allowed out to attend the local state school in the day, but at night were locked into the cellar which had no natural light, electricity or toilet, and was never cleaned. They were often beaten with a belt by their father, it is alleged, and forced to go without food.
French television news says this is the house in the quiet suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis where the family lived
The shocking conditions the children lived in became apparent last Wednesday night when the older boy, Damien, escaped and ran to the local police station in Bondy, Seine-Saint-Denis, to the north-east of Paris.
He told officers about the conditions he and his brother lived in, and officers went to their house in the suburb to see for themselves.
Deve Maboungou, of UNSA police, said: 'When the police arrived they found a mattress and excrement - it was just as the boy had said.'
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Officers found the boys had 'scratches and burst blood vessels on their arms', according to Nord Eclair.
The source added: 'They slept on mattresses on the floor, without sheets, in the middle of their own mess' in the cellar which was 'in an advanced state of decay'.
A source said the boys' mistreatment began when their drug-addict mother moved out and their father moved in with another woman who had two sons, now aged seven and 17.
The older boy is said to be a 'petit rat' student dancer at the Opera de Paris, which is looking after him, the Daily Telegraph reports. It says the seven-year-old lived a very different life, attending private school and sleeping upstairs with the two adults.
Deve Maboungou, of the UNSA Police Syndicate, said officers found the boys living in their own excrement
Neighbours in the quiet suburban street said they never saw the children playing outside
The boys' living conditions were only discovered last week after the elder boy escaped and ran to the police station
'There appears to have been a law of silence in the family over the other boys' treatment. Nobody was supposedly aware of anything amiss,' a source said.
When the father, a plumber, was questioned about the conditions his children lived in, he told authorities they were 'unmanageable and broke everything'. He also admitted sometimes with-holding food from them.
The father and stepmother are now in custody.
A spokesman for the Tribunal de Grande Instance court in Paris told MailOnline: 'The father has been charged with habitual violence against a minor, with-holding food and care, and violence by an older carer against a minor.
'The step-mother has been charged with with-holding food and care, and violence by an older carer against a minor.'
He said the case dossier was now with an examining magistrate who would lead the enquiry.
The boys were checked by a paediatrician before being placed in a foster home.
Neighbours said they had never suspected a thing: 'It was always very quiet there', one said. 'You never saw them playing in the street.'
Police in Seine-Saint-Denis heard the boys had been sleeping in the cellar for more than three years
ECHOES OF THE CASE THAT SHOCKED AUSTRIA: JOSEF FRITZL
Josef Fritzl is serving life in jail after imprisoning his daughter in his basement and raping her repeatedy for 24 years
Josef Fritzl is currently serving a life sentence in Austria after being convicted of imprisoning his daughter, Elisabeth, for 24 years.
Fritzl, now 78, lured his daughter, then 18, into the basement of their family home in Amstetten, Austria, in 1984. He then forced her to write a letter claiming she had run away, and gave it to police after reporting his daughter missing.
While she was entombed under the house, Elisabeth was raped repeatedly by her father, and gave birth to seven children. She also suffered one miscarriage.
One of Elisabeth's children died shortly after birth, three were removed to live upstairs with Josef and his wife Rosemarie, and three stayed underground with Elisabeth.
Fritzl threatened his daughter that she and her three children downstairs would be gassed if they tried to escape. He also said they would be electrocuted if they meddled with the door.When Elisabeth's incestuously-conceived daughter Kerstil fell seriously ill with kidney failure in April 2008, Elisabeth persuaded her father to take the 19-year-old to hospital. Fritzl's lies were uncovered, police intervened, and Elisabeth and her children were finally free to leave the basement.