A British couple arrested yesterday for abandoning their children at their Costa del Sol hotel ‘to go out partying’ have been sentenced.
The kids, a baby aged six months, a toddler aged one and a four-year-old, were found alone inside their hotel room at the Holiday World Resort in Benalmadena.
They were taken to hospital, while their British parents, a man aged 41 and a 28-year-old woman, were arrested and charged with abandonment.
The youngest child had also tested positive for cocaine at a Malaga hospital before being taken into care, according to some reports. Although the parents did not admit to this.
The parents were given prison sentences, suspended for a year and a half and have also been banned from seeing their kids for two years.
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Emergency foster families had now been found to look after the youngsters.
A spokesman for Andalucia’s High Court of Justice said: ‘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.
‘The children are under the guardianship of the Social Services of the Regional Government of Andalusia, which, in compliance with this judgment, plans to contact the British consulate so that it can arrange for the three children to be transferred to their home country.’
The National Police in Malaga said: ‘A specialist branch of the National Police called UFAM, a family and women assistance unit, is involved and the Junta de Andalucia’s social services’ unit has taken temporary charge of the children.’
They are understood to have spent a night in police custody before being hauled to court.
It later emerged the family were staying at Holiday World Resort, a massive complex made up of three hotels and a collection of premium apartments totalling more than 850 rooms.
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