A British couple arrested for leaving their children at a Costa del Sol hotel to go out partying have been issued a ban from seeing their children by a Spanish court. The couple, aged 41 and 28, left their three children—a six-month-old baby, a one-year-old toddler, and a four-year-old—alone at the Holiday World Resort in Benalmadena.
Incident Details
Unconfirmed reports previously suggested the youngest child tested positive for cocaine at a Malaga hospital before being taken into care, though authorities have not commented. Spanish police confirmed the arrests of the unnamed British tourists.
Court Sentence
The couple accepted prison sentences of one year and four months each, which were automatically suspended. Additionally, they have been banned from seeing their children for two years and from coming within 500 meters of them for two years and eight months. A spokesman for Andalucia's High Court of Justice stated: 'Court No. 3 of the Investigating Division of the Court of First Instance of Torremolinos today sentenced two British parents arrested for abandoning their three children to one year and four months in prison for committing the offense of abandonment. The sentence was delivered as part of a plea bargain deal after the pair admitted their crime. In addition, the ruling also establishes that they are disqualified for two years and eight months from exercising parental authority, and for a period of two years they will be prohibited from going within 500 meters of the children.'
Future of the Children
The children are under the guardianship of the Social Services of the Regional Government of Andalusia, which plans to contact the British consulate to arrange their transfer to the UK. The court suspended the parents' imprisonment on condition they commit no further offenses within two years.
