A British couple have been arrested after they left their three young children in a Costa del Sol hotel to go out partying.
The pair are said to have been detained after the youngest of the children, a six-month-old baby, tested positive for cocaine.
The baby has now been taken into temporary social services care, along with their siblings – aged four and two-years-old.
Reports say the British pair were held in the early hours of the morning, although police weren’t able to give an exact time of arrest.
Sources close to the ongoing investigation have described the situation the youngsters were found in as ‘worrying,’ saying the hotel room they were in was in a mess and the eldest child was looking after the others.
Although the regional Junta de Andalucia government has taken temporary charge of the children, they are understood to have been taken to Malaga’s Materno Infantil Hospital for a check-up.
It is not yet clear whether police waited for their parents to return to their hotel before arresting them or located them while they were still out partying.
The hotel they were staying at, which is in the popular resort of Benalmadena, has not been named.
Spanish police confirmed that the couple had been arrested for allegedly abandoning their children. A spokesperson for Spain’s National Police said: ‘A British man aged 41 and a woman aged 28 have been held on suspicion of a crime of child abandonment.
A British couple have been arrested after they left their three young children in a Costa del Sol hotel to go out partying (File image of Benalmadena)
‘Their children, aged six months, a year and a bit and four, were found alone at the hotel and have been taken to hospital.
‘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.’
Officers said they cannot comment on a Spanish media report saying the baby tested positive for cocaine.
A well-placed source said the place the couple were staying at was a ‘very large hotel complex’ on the Costa del Sol.
It is expected they will be held in police custody overnight before being taken to court tomorrow for a first hearing before a judge, although this has not yet been confirmed by detectives.
The judge will decide whether to release them on bail or remand them to prison pending an ongoing court probe.
In February a British woman was arrested on the Costa del Sol after her eight-month-old baby tested positive for cocaine.
Police held her after going to a beach near Marbella where she was camping with her partner because they had received reports a couple had lit a bonfire under a large tree.
They discovered she and her boyfriend were staying in a tent by dunes at Cabopino Beach and had an uninsured car parked nearby with an expired MOT on it.
Officers decided to take the baby to a local health centre for a check-up after seeing the family’s living conditions and suspecting the youngster could be malnourished.
The child was transferred to the Costa del Sol Hospital near Marbella after being seen at Las Albarizas Health Centre in the popular holiday resort.
An initial hospital examination confirmed the baby boy was underweight for his age and the cocaine showed up in a urine test, leading to him being admitted to a paediatric unit as medics awaited further test results.
The youngster’s mum was identified as a 25-year-old British national and her partner as a 43-year-old Spanish man.
Local reports said the woman had failed to show for several appointments she had made over the past few months at the paediatric unit where her child was taken to.
A court launched an investigation but it was not clear today how it developed.
