Mother and stepfather arrested in Portugal after allegedly abandoning young children 1,500 miles from home

Themum and stepdad of two young children allegedly abandoned in Portugal nearly 1,500 miles from their French home have been arrested after enjoying lattes and pastries as they sunned themselves on a cafe terrace.

A French-speaking pensioner who talked to them as they relaxed over snacks called police because she suspected they could be the pair cops were hunting after the youngsters were rescued from their plight by locals who found them wandering down a rural road.

A female sexologist, 41, and her 55-year-old boyfriend are said to have blindfolded the two boys aged five and three and told them they could only take the covers off once they had found knives the couple claimed to have buried in the dirt.

While the kids obeyed, the couple reportedly drove off 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.

A local bakery worker who found the two brothers wandering down a rural road “crying and shouting”, between the towns of Alcacer do Sal and Comporta a 90-minute drive south from Lisbon, alerted police around 7pm on Tuesday.

Their mum, who on social media describes herself as a “sexologist who helps traumatised individuals to regain serenity and sexual fulfilment”, and her new partner were held around 3.30pm yesterday at O Vasco cafe in Fatima nearly 125 miles from where the two boys had been left nearly 48 hours earlier.

New details of their arrests, confirmed by Portuguese cops yesterday, emerged overnight as the couple were hauled to court following a night in a police cell.

The children’s natural father had reported them missing on May 11 after they vanished from their home in Colmar in northeastern France near the border with Germany.

The mother, 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 Spain while the hunt for them intensified before entering Portugal via the town of Miranda do Douro in the northeastern district of Braganca.

The couple go before a judge today after being accused of crimes including domestic violence and child abandonment - but will face probable extradition to France before being prosecuted in Portugal because of the European Arrest Warrants issued by their home country.

Today a Portuguese woman aged around 80 said to have spent most of her working life in France emerged as one of the heroes in the sickening story.

O Vasco owner Jorge Lopes told Portuguese press the couple had spent more than five hours on his cafe terrace and the unnamed pensioner called cops.

She suspected they could be the pair who had allegedly abandoned the two brothers after asking them where they were from and getting the response: “We live in the world.”

Speaking of the moment when five police officers arrived and went up to them, Mr Lopes said: “They acted as if nothing had happened.

“They stayed sitting and didn’t seem nervous. They were searched and handcuffed without any stress at all.

“When I saw them so at ease in front of the authorities, I was astonished.

“It was as if they didn’t have blood running through their veins.”

He said his wife had served them pastries and cafe lattes earlier in the day and the woman had asked her to charge her phone behind the bar.

A customer called Antonio said they were “chatting and laughing” when he arrived, with another client saying the arrested man told him as he sat down next to them: “Look at this. I’m here in the sun and the sun is looking at me.”

Teresa Pinto, a worker at a restaurant called Rustikus in Alcacer do Sal where the couple were with the two brothers shortly before they were allegedly abandoned, told respected Portuguese tabloid Correio da Manha overnight: “They arrived just after midday on Tuesday and were sat on the terrace for about two hours.

“The little ones were playing football and several times the ball went towards the street but neither adult got out of their chairs to stop it.”

The couple’s French-plated green Opel was taken away by police after they were held.

They have been described as “not very co-operative” since their arrests.

GNR police spokesman Carlos Canatario told Portuguese TV broadcaster SIC: “They’re not being hostile.

“They’re simply being silent and very reserved.”

Confirming the arrests yesterday in a statement, the police force said: “The Republican National Guard located and detained today, May 21, in Fatima, a 55-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman suspected of committing the crimes of domestic violence and exposure and abandonment, related to the incident involving two young children found alone near a public road in the municipality of Alcacer do Sal.

"Following the initial alert received regarding the presence of two children alone near a public road, GNR officers immediately went to the scene, where they located the minors, ensuring their protection and safety.

"Given the situation of evident vulnerability, the children were taken to the home of a local resident, where they remained and received initial care in the presence of the officers until they were transferred to a hospital unit.

“As part of the investigative efforts carried out immediately, in a coordinated manner and based on information sharing among the various branches of the GNR’s entire police structure, with particular emphasis on the Criminal Investigation unit, officers from the Fatima Territorial Post located and detained the suspects in that city, as a result of the investigative work and police pro-activity.

“The investigation is being conducted by the Specific Victims Investigation and Support Unit (NIAVE) of Santiago do Cacem.

“A report outlining the facts has been sent to the Judicial Court of Grandola.”

Portugal’s Public Ministry said: “On May 20, at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office, the provisional measure of foster family placement was judicially determined, and it is already in the implementation phase with the transfer of the minors to the foster family

“The two boys are in good health and were discharged from hospital on Thursday.”

Alexandre Quintas, the man who found the allegedly abandoned youngsters crying and called police, said: “The oldest told me that he and his brother had got lost in the forest and that their father and mother had left without taking them.

“I realised straight away that they had been abandoned because of the backpacks, the way they had been made up.

“They had a change of clothes, a packet of biscuits, two pieces of fruit and a bottle of water.”

Portugal’s Justice Minister Rita Alarcao Judice said yesterday after finishing a prison visit in the city of Leiria: “The Directorate-General of Justice Administration (DGAJ) has been in contact with the French courts, coordinating and providing all the necessary information and obtaining the information the courts requested to allow this swift meeting to take place.

“So now we await the normal procedures of a possible return, because as far as I understood, although I still do not have much concrete information, there is already a request for the return of the children, therefore it will be handled in the natural way these processes follow.

“I hope the process can now proceed as quickly as possible to minimise the trauma that these children must have suffered.”