Malaga man arrested for shutting his son in his bedroom for a year

He got through the hours by playing videogames, and TV was his only company during the long year he spent shut in his bedroom, with no social contact. That has been the difficult experience suffered by a boy from Malaga, whose father has just been arrested for keeping his son confined and isolated.

Andalucía’s child protection authorities began investigating the case at the end of October, and alerted the police about their suspicions regarding the ten-year-old. They then embarked on a joint operation, working closely with Social Services. Eventually the Junta de Andalucía decreed that the child was being neglected and could be taken into care, and on 25 January police obtained a court order to enter the property and take him to a protection centre.

While they were enforcing this court order, the officers talked to the boy, who told them that he had not been out of his room for the past year except to go to the bathroom. He said he spent most of his time playing videogames and watching TV, and had nobody to talk to.

Relatives who lived in the same house corroborated what he told the police. His aunt and cousin said that, even though they were living under the same roof, they hadn’t seen him for months because he was always in his bedroom.

Sources at the Junta de Andalucía said the father had been arrested because of the allegations and the evidence to support them from social services, health centres and the boy’s school. They all confirmed that the boy had not been seen for the past year.

The father, 47, is a Moroccan national. He is accused of a crime against family rights and duties and another of illegal confinement. He has been banned by the court from seeing or communicating with his son, is not allowed to leave Spain and has had his passport withdrawn.

The boy is still in the care of the Junta de Andalucía and is undergoing assessments to determine the emotional and physiological damage he has suffered from his ordeal.