A British couple are sentenced in Spain after leaving their three young children unsupervised in a hotel in Benalmádena on the Costa del Sol. Reporting says the children, including a six-month-old baby, a one-year-old and a four-year-old, were found alone in their room at the Holiday World Resort. The children are taken for medical checks, and the parents, aged 41 and 28, are arrested and charged with abandonment. Some accounts also report that the youngest child tested positive for cocaine at a hospital in Málaga, though the parents do not admit to that.
The couple receive custodial sentences that are suspended. One outlet reports a suspended sentence and a ban on contact, while another cites a ban that includes restrictions on parental authority and a prohibition on approaching the children within a specified distance for a period of time. According to a spokesman for Andalucía’s High Court of Justice, the children come under the guardianship of regional social services, and emergency foster families are found to care for them. Authorities also indicate steps are taken to arrange for the children to be transferred to the family’s home country via consular support.
