Couple planned Morocco trip 'to sacrifice their five-year-old son in desert'
A couple have been arrested after allegedly planning to sacrifice their five-year-old son in the Moroccan desert.
The suspects, both music teachers from the town of Zarcans near Bordeaux in France, were seized trying to board a ferry to Tangiers from southern Spain back in December 2023. In the weeks before they were arrested, they'd sublet their apartment and left France, driving a new four-wheel drive across the border into Spain.
The alarm was raised after prosecutors in Bordeaux received concerns from relatives, who told them the father relayed he wanted to "sacrifice" the child in the Sahara Desert because he was "possessed".
The mother and father, Marie and Florian L, whose last names have been withheld in accordance with French law, have both denied having plans to hurt their child.
Defending Florian, lawyer Audrey Boussillon said: "Never did he have the intention to harm his son in any way".
The defence team said they have denied the charges laid against them, which include being part of a criminal gang and failing in their parental duties. The mother's lawyer Aurelie Filippi-Codaccioni said the couple had wanted to return to Morocco for an "indefinite period" after enjoying a trip there two years prior.
"They had been there two years before and had loved it, hence the long-standing plan to return," the lawyer said.
The child's interests are being represented by Merlene Labadie - who claims the "mystical remarks" and the couple's "inexplicable behaviour" had put their son's life at risk. The child relayed that he had been "cold, scared" and spoke of "removing the snake within us".
According to Spain's Civil Guard, the parents were suffering from psychiatric issues at the time, with the dad found naked in the woods of a nearby town two months before the arrests, which lead to his committal to a psychiatric facility for two weeks, French daily Le Monde reports.
The mother's sister said he was experiencing "health problems", but claimed media reports were "exaggerated". "While it is undeniable that he needs help, they make my sister and him out to be premeditated child murderers," she said.
The boy is now being cared for by his mother's parents, who have "done a lot of work to deconstruct these ideas, so that he is no longer afraid of the outside world", the sister said.
Prosecutors in Bordeaux were told about the alleged sacrifice comment on December 19, 2023 - two days before their arrest.
The father was said to be planning to visit the Maghreb to perform an occult initiation rite. The Sahara Desert holds religious significance in some Occult traditions.
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