Marine Rousseau, 41, and former police officer Marc Ballabriga, 55, are accused of leaving Barthelemy and Zacharie, aged five and three, blindfolded.

The French mother, 41-year-old Marine R, and stepfather Marc B, 55, were both arrested yesterday for allegedly dumping the schoolboys hundreds of miles from where they grew up.

A couple accused of blindfolding their two young children in a forest around 1,500 from home then abandoning them have appeared in court in a bizarre appearance