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French police have charged a 33-year-old man with murder after he allegedly killed his three-year-old son by putting him into a washing machine and turning it on.
Identified in reports as Christophe Champenois, the man was charged with "murder of a minor" late yesterday in Meaux near Paris, court officials said.
The dead boy's mother was charged with failing to assist a person in danger and failing to prevent a crime, and both parents were held without bail.
"A blow to the head," appeared to have killed the child, a source connected with the case said.
Neighbours said the boy, Bastien, died on Friday after his father put him naked in the washing machine to punish him for getting into trouble at nursery school.
A neighbour told journalists that she had seen the boy's body after his mother had come to her apartment looking for help.
"I took the little boy in my arms, he was frozen, completely naked. He was all white, limp, practically like a toy," said the neighbour, who lives in the same apartment building as the couple in Germiny L'Eveque, a town of 1300 people.
The boy's mother had attempted to resuscitate him but failed, she said.
According to a source connected with the case, the boy's father was denying the charges.
It is understood that he is claiming the boy had fallen down the stairs.
However, witness testimony and tests on the body were "consistent with the fact that the child was put into a washing machine", the source said.
The source added that the boy had been repeatedly abused, including being locked up for hours in a cupboard.
A local official, Christine Boubet, said social services had assisted the family since 2006 "for social and psychological distress".
Bastien's school, parents and sister had noticed a change in the boy's behaviour since the end of the school holidays earlier this month, and reporetd that he was more "disturbed, careless and a problem for his parents," Boubet said.
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