A particularly macabre incident occurred late on Friday night, in the outskirts of Paris, where the father of a three-year-old boy allegedly killed his son.

Christope Champenois, 33, according to reports, first stripped his son, Bastien, before forcing him into a washing machine and turning the appliance on, ostensibly to punish the boy for a prank he played at his nursery school. Apparently, the boy had thrown a classmate's drawing down the toilet.

The boy's body was recovered by his mother, Charlene, 25, who rushed to the neighbors, saying Bastien had fallen down the stairs.

I picked him up and his limbs were as loose as those of a rag doll, their neighbor Alice told Le Parisien, I felt his heart beat for the last time and then he died.

According to reports, the neighbor tried to save the boy; his mother tried massaging his heart. However, police later confirmed the child had died of head injuries.

The reports also suggested that Champenois was unemployed, frustrated and in the habit of imposing such cruel punishments on Bastien. His five-year-old daughter, Maud, said locking Bastien in the washing machine was a common occurrence for her father.

Bastien was an unwanted child, his grandmother, Evelyne, was quoted as saying, On the day he was born, his father was out drinking and when I told him he had a son, he said that he didn't want him.

Authorities in Paris have arrested the couple and a murder case has been registered against Champenois for killing his son and Charlene for not being able to prevent the crime.