A Three-year-old has died after his father allegedly stuffed him in a washing machine and switched it on as a "punishment" for throwing classmate's drawing down a toilet, it has been reported.

Bastien Champenois' 33-year-old father Christophe was charged with "murder of a minor" on Sunday night, according to court sources. Mr Champenois is said to have stripped his son naked and pushed him into the machine to punish him for the nursery school prank.

The father allegedly then ran the cold cycle wash for a few minutes, which is thought to have killed his son. French police said the three-year-old, who neighbours described as "angelic", died of head injuries on Friday night.

The incident took place at the family home on Friday in Germigny-l'Eveque, Meaux, which is 40km east of Paris.

According to Le Parisien, Bastien's mother Charlene recovered her son from the washing machine. The 25-year-old ran to her neighbour, known only as Alice, and told her the toddler had fallen down the stairs.

Alice told the French newspaper she picked him up and "his limbs were as loose as those of a rag doll".

"I felt his heart beat for the last time and then he died", she said.

According to Bastien's five-year-old sister Maud, it was not the first time her younger brother had been put in the washing machine by his father as a punishment.

Neighbours told Le Parisien the boy had been abused repeatedly. Bastien is reported to have been locked up for hours in a cupboard and left on a window sill wrapped in just a blanket.

Evelyne, the boy's grandmother, described him as "an unwanted child".

"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", the Daily Mail reported.

Champenois is currently under investigation for murdering his child and a judge in Meaux has charged Charlene, a mother of seven, for failing to prevent a crime and failing to assist a person in danger.

Both have been placed in custody and their surviving children have been taken into care.

Flowers and a picture of three-year-old child Bastien are seen at the entrance of the family home on Monday.