A sexologist mother and her partner accused of abandoning her two young sons in a Portuguese forest burst into song and declarations of love during a bizarre court hearing.
Marine Rousseau, 41, and former police officer Marc Ballabriga, 55, are accused of leaving Barthelemy and Zacharie, aged five and three, blindfolded during what has been described as a twisted ‘treasure hunt’.
The boys were found crying and screaming alone on a rural road on Tuesday before Rousseau and Ballabriga were tracked down around 100 miles away at a cafe near Lisbon.
The French couple appeared in court on Friday in handcuffs escorted by Portuguese police officers.
During the hearing, Rousseau was heard singing like an opera performer while Ballabriga shouted in French: ‘I love you.’
It was unclear who he was referring to.
The pair are accused of domestic violence, child abandonment and child neglect.
A judge is expected to decide on Saturday whether they will remain in custody or be released on bail.
Frenchwoman Marine Rousseau (L) leaves the Setubal courthouse, suspected of abandoning two children, in Setubal, Portugal, on May 23, 2026
Frenchman Marc Ballabriga (C) leaves the Setubal courthouse, suspected of abandoning two children, in Setubal, Portugal, on May 23, 2026
The boys were found crying and screaming alone on a rural road on Tuesday before Rousseau and Ballabriga were tracked down around 100 miles away at a cafe near Lisbon
Two European arrest warrants issued by French authorities are also understood to be active against the pair.
They are additionally suspected of leaving another of Rousseau’s sons, aged 16, behind in France.
It comes after footage captured the dramatic moment police arrested the mother following a manhunt sparked by the alleged abandonment of her two young boys nearly 1,500 miles from their home.
CCTV footage shows Portuguese officers escorting the French pair to a waiting car after they were tracked down at a cafe terrace where they had been sunning themselves over snacks nearly 48 hours after the distraught children aged five and three were found crying and alone on a rural road nearly 125 miles away.
Portuguese TV broadcaster SIC, which obtained the footage, also published a video showing the couple arriving at O Vasco cafe in the city of Fatima a 90-minute drive north of Lisbon earlier in the day in their French-plated Opel.
The new images emerged as Portuguese public service broadcaster RTP reported the couple had been overheard by a French-speaking Portuguese police officer hatching a plan to ‘pretend they were crazy’ after they were taken into custody.
Court officials are already said to have been made aware of the conversation Marine and Marc allegedly had in the car that took them from Fatima to a police station in Palmela 100 miles away after their arrests on Thursday.
The couple are due to find out later this morning whether they get remanded to prison over the accusations of domestic violence and child abandonment they are facing.
A jail remand is a near-certainty because France had already declared them fugitives before they were held on Thursday and they would face re-arrest even if they were granted bail over the alleged offences they have committed in Portugal.
The father of the two boys allegedly abandoned between the towns of Alcacer do Sal and Comporta on Tuesday had reported them missing on May 11 after they vanished from their home in Colmar in northeastern France near the border with Germany.
The French couple appeared in court on Friday in handcuffs escorted by Portuguese police officers
A vehicle of the National Gendarmerie of Portugal (GNR) with Marine Rousseau and Marc Ballabriga (not pictured) leaves the Setubal courthouse
Marine, who is understood to have left another son at home before embarking on a 1,365-mile journey with her two young sons 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 were filmed during their long journey filling up their car with fuel at a petrol station.
Yesterday it emerged they were arrested after enjoying lattes and pastries as the kids were placed into temporary care after being seen in hospital.
Ballabriga and their mum, who on social media describes herself as a ‘sexologist who helps traumatised individuals to regain serenity and sexual fulfilment’, are said to have blindfolded trusting youngsters Barthelemy and Zacharie 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 children 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 found the two brothers ‘crying and shouting’ and alerted police around 7pm on Tuesday.
The arrests took place at O Vasco cafe on Thursday afternoon.
A French-speaking pensioner who talked to the fugitive couple 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.
O Vasco owner Jorge Lopes told Portuguese press the couple had spent more than five hours on his cafe terrace.
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 Marine had asked her to charge her phone behind the bar.
They were given nothing more than a change of clothes, two pieces of fruit and some water
The boys could be seen clambering around in the grey car as the parents filled the car up
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 Marine and Marc were with the two brothers shortly before they were allegedly abandoned, said: ‘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.’
Marine was overheard singing as she was escorted into court yesterday and her partner repeatedly shouted in French: ‘Je vous aime’ – English for ‘I love you’ as he was bundled out of a police van just in front of her.
Sources said Ballabriga had acted violently after being taken into police custody, shouting at officers and trying to damage his cell while his girlfriend spent hours singing.
One told Portuguese broadcaster SIC the behaviour ‘could be a joint strategy to escape the clutches of the law.’
GNR police spokesman Carlos Canatario said after the arrests of the couple: ‘They’re not being hostile.
‘They’re simply being silent and very reserved.’
Confirming the arrests on Thursday in a statement, the Portuguese 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.
Marine was seen in a police station in the city yesterday, apparently in handcuffs
‘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.
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 on Thursday evening 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 minimize the trauma that these children must have suffered.’
