Mother of Abandoned Boys Locked in Hellish Prison Where Inmates Set Fires

A 41-year-old mother, Marine Rousseau, is behind bars in a brutal women's prison notorious for inmate-set fires and violence. She faces serious charges of endangerment and abandonment after her two young sons were found wandering alone.

Rousseau and her partner, Marc Ballabriga, 55, left their five-year-old and three-year-old boys blindfolded in a wooded area near a deserted bus stop in Portugal. The children had only a few pieces of fruit and a water bottle when they were discovered by a local baker, who promptly alerted authorities.

The couple was apprehended by the Portuguese National Guard (GNR) while they sat calmly at a café terrace near Fátima, about 120 miles from where the boys were abandoned. They were taken into custody on Thursday.

As Rousseau was escorted into court, she was heard singing to herself. An investigating judge ordered her remand to Tires women’s prison, located roughly 12 miles west of Lisbon. This facility is infamous for housing several hundred inmates, including remand prisoners and those serving sentences for serious crimes.

Tires prison has a troubling history of safety issues. Last year, an inmate set fire to her cell, resulting in five female officers being hospitalized due to smoke inhalation. This particular prisoner had been transferred to Tires after previous violent incidents at another facility.

In addition to the fire incident, Portuguese broadcaster RTP reported two suspected drug overdoses at Tires, one of which resulted in an inmate's death. Following these events, the chief prison officer was dismissed, and an investigation was initiated.

Trade unions have reported over a dozen assaults on guards by inmates in 2024 alone. The facility also faced a significant Covid outbreak in 2020 that infected more than 120 inmates, alongside multiple prisoner deaths in their cells during 2018 and 2021.

Rousseau will remain at Tires until her next court appearance. She has been separated from the boys' father for several years and promotes herself online as a "sexologist," claiming to help individuals who have experienced trauma regain sexual satisfaction.

Ballabriga, a former police officer, has a criminal record that includes a conviction for harassment and domestic violence against the mother of his daughter in 2010. He is currently held at Setúbal Prison.