I saved a quiet little boy’s life with four words – I dread to think what might have happened if I’d never noticed him 

AS THE little boy wrapped his arms around her waist, Flaviane Carvalho felt a wave of happiness and relief.

It was her second time meeting the young lad and, just three months later, the change in him was enormous.

Flaviane Carvalho, 46, could hardly believe this was the same quiet boy whose life she had saved thanks to just four words.

It had been New Year’s Day and Flaviane had bee called into work at the restaurant she was managing.

Flaviane had been working at Mrs Potato in Florida for two years and was happy to help out, but little did she know she was about to save a young boy’s life.

It was 2pm by the time Flaviane arrived and the restaurant was already packed. 

She remembers: “Everyone was in a celebratory mood and the hours sped by. Before I knew it, it was 10.30pm, just half an hour before closing time.”

It was then that the restaurant door opened and a family walked in.

“I’d never seen the couple or their son before but they stuck out because not many parents took their children for dinner so late in the evening,” Flaviane says. 

And there was something else that was odd.

“The man and woman were wearing short sleeves, while the little boy was covered up in a long-sleeved hoodie and trousers,” she says.

“And while the adults ordered food for themselves and chatted, the little boy, who looked as if he was about ten or 11, sat silently.

“I kept my eye on him and started to feel concerned.

“He wasn’t eating anything and he was so quiet.

“I just knew something wasn’t right so I came up with an excuse to go over.”

Flaviane approached the table and asked the couple if there was anything wrong with the child’s food.

The man then told her that the boy would eat at home instead.

“I thought, What kind of couple take their child to a restaurant and don’t let him eat?” she says.

“Then I noticed bruising and a scratch on the boy’s face and alarm bells went off in my head.

“Thinking on my feet, I moved behind the parents so that they couldn’t see me, and I caught the boy’s eye.

“I mouthed: ‘Are you OK?’ At first, he nodded. 

“But I wasn’t convinced so, quick as a flash, I wrote a note on a piece of paper.”

Flaviane wrote the words ‘do you need help?’ on the paper, holding it up so that only the boy could see it.

“He nodded and gestured with his hands telling me that he didn’t know what to do,” she remembers.

“It was clear to me he was being mistreated.”

Moving discreetly so as not to arouse suspicion, Flaviane called the police and then quietly asked the waitress to slow down the service to the family to allow officers to get there.

Ten minutes later the police arrived.

“Everything happened very quickly,” Flaviane remembers.

“The man was arrested while the woman was allowed to go and the boy was taken to hospital.

“I didn’t know what had happened to him but I just hoped he was all right.”

People called me a hero but I didn’t feel that way. I just did what I believed anyone would have done.

Flaviane Carvalho

A few days later, the police called the restaurant manager to the station to make a statement.

“It was then I learnt the awful truth,” she says.

“An officer told me that the boy was being tortured by his stepfather.”

Thanks to Flaviane alerting the police the stepdad, Timothy Lee Wilson, was charged with multiple counts of aggravated child abuse and neglect.

The boy confided in detectives that he’d been beaten with a wooden broom, hung upside down from a door, and deprived of food as punishment.

His mother, Kristen Swann, was also charged with child neglect after admitting she knew about the abuse but failed to seek help.

“I was so shocked,” Flaviane says, “How could anyone do that to a child?

“The officer told her that she had saved the boy’s life.”

‘In tears’

Soon after, the story hit the local news, including the part Flaviane had played, and it quickly went global.

“People called me a hero but I didn’t feel that way,” she says.

“I just did what I believed anyone would have done.

“But I soon realised that wasn’t the case.” 

In the weeks that followed, Flaviane received dozens of letters from around the world from as far afield as Japan, Germany and Brazil.

When I was a child in danger, I didn’t have a Flaviane to help me out. Thank you for what you did, one read.

“I was in tears reading them,” she admits.

“There were so many people in the same situation as the little boy, but no one had done anything.

“It broke my heart.

“My family were very proud of me but they all said the same thing.

“‘We wouldn’t have expected anything different from you.’”

At work, her colleagues started a GoFundMe page and donations hit £50,000.

“Of course, I’d never expected any reward but I was so grateful for the support as I was the only one in my family who’d worked during the pandemic,” she says.

“I put part of the money towards my daughters’ education and donated some to charity.”

Three months later Flaviane received a call from social services asking if she would like to meet the boy she’d saved.

“I told them it would be an honour and took my family along as well as some gifts,” she says.

“I wasn’t sure how things would go but the moment the boy saw me, he wrapped his arms around me and gave me a hug.

“I asked if he was OK and he told me that his scars had gone and he had a smile on his face again, he thanked me for everything.”

In time, Timothy Lee Wilson, 36, appeared in court charged with two counts of false imprisonment of a child under the age of 13, three counts of aggravated child abuse with a weapon, four counts of aggravated child abuse, and one count of child neglect. 

He pleaded not guilty.

Neither of them will ever be able to hurt that little boy again.

Flaviane Carvalho

The court was told harrowing details of the abuse. The little boy was denied food and water, made to do military-style exercises, hung upside down from a door by his neck and feet, and at one point, handcuffed to a dolly cart on Christmas Day.

They’d told him Santa had said he had to be punished.

“I gave evidence, it was nerve-wracking but I was determined to do it,” Flaviane says.

“Then, a few days later, I was at work when the police called and told me he had been found guilty on all ten counts.

“I was so relieved.”

Wilson has since been sentenced to life in prison while Kristen Swann was jailed for 364 days after accepting a plea on charges of aggravated child abuse and failure to report child abuse by a household member.

“Neither of them will ever be able to hurt that little boy again,” Flaviane says.

“I’m still in touch with him and he’s doing amazingly well. He’s being taken care of by a warm and loving family and he tells me he’s happy.

“I feel as though I was meant to save him that day. The police have told me that if I hadn’t intervened, they could have been looking at a murder investigation.

“So my message to everyone is this: Please don’t be afraid to help if someone’s in need — step forward to do something. It could save a life.”