A nine-year-old boy had been living alone for two years in an unheated flat in southwestern France after being abandoned by his mother so she could live with her boyfriend, it has been revealed.

The child had been left to fend for himself in a council flat in Nersac, a village on the outskirts of Angoulême, after his mother moved in with her new partner three miles away, French media reports.

The unidentified mother, 39, was sentenced last week to six months in prison for abandoning and endangering a minor. The boy’s father, who lived in another town, was not charged.

The boy lived alone from 2020 to 2022 and during that time had periods without hot water, heating or electricity, washing himself in cold water and wrapping up in sleeping bags and blankets to stay warm.