yes, well.......Daily Mail

The British mother who abandoned daughter, 11, on busy Spanish beach while she went drinking

By Claire Ellicott
Last updated at 1:09 AM on 19th August 2010

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Guilty: Jenkins admitted abandoning her 11-year-old daughter

Guilty: Jenkins admitted abandoning her 11-year-old daughter

This is the mother who abandoned her daughter on a crowded Spanish beach while she drank at a bar.

Alicia Jenkins, described as a ‘fishwife’ who allowed her six children to ‘run wild’, has been given a six-month suspended prison sentence.

The 42-year-old sat drinking in the hotel bar for two hours on Sunday, leaving the 11-year-old wandering around the resort of Salou,on the Costa Dorada.

The girl, who has not been named by police, was discovered by a concerned British couple.

But when they took her to find Jenkins, she told them to ‘**** off and leave me alone’, refusing to take charge of the child.

Police were later called and arrested the mother of six, who lives in Rochdale, Lancashire.

A spokesman for the regional Mossos d’Esquadra police force described Jenkins, who has been released and allowed to continue her holiday, as being ‘very drunk’.

She appeared before a magistrate in Tarragona on Tuesday, admitting a charge of child abandonment.

Jenkins, who was on a two-week holiday with her daughter while her estranged husband looked after their five other children, was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

Last night her daughter was being cared for by Spanish social services at a care home in the area.

A spokesman for the Department of Social Action and Citizenship at the Generalitat, the regional Catalan government, said: ‘We have been in contact with the British consulate in Barcelona to discuss what steps will be taken from now.

Alicia Jenkins, 42, sat drinking in a bar while her 11-year-old daughter wandered around the nearby beach at Salou, pictured

Alicia Jenkins, 42, sat drinking in a bar while her 11-year-old daughter wandered around the nearby beach at Salou, pictured

‘Our first priority is the welfare of the child and that she is returned to a safe environment.

‘I do not know if the mother has been to visit her yet.’

Last night Jenkins’s estraged husband and father of her children, Shafaq Ahmed, said she had an alcohol problem. The 40-year-old taxi driver added that she did not tell him for two days that she had been arrested for abandoning their daughter.

He said: ‘When Alicia phoned me she told me that my daughter had just wandered off and was taken back to the hotel.

‘I asked her if she had been drinking but she promised me that she hadn’t.

‘I didn’t believe her because she has a drinking problem.

‘She told me that she had spent the night in a police station but didn’t mention court.'
The Hotel California Garden where the mother and daughter were staying. After a British couple brought the girl back to the hotel, staff contacted the police

The Hotel California Garden where the mother and daughter were staying. After a British couple brought the girl back to the hotel, staff contacted the police

Mr Ahmed, who separated from Jenkins last year after 14 years of marriage, added: ‘I am furious that this has happened. She has lied to me and I am really angry. She phoned me today saying she needed me to send her £500 so she could give it to the police but she never mentioned she had been to court.

‘I am really angry because I said to her, “How did you lose her? You must have been drunk?” But she said she hadn’t been drinking.

‘She didn’t tell me until Tuesday what had happened because she said she wanted to get it straight in her mind.’

Mr Ahmed said that before the holiday, they had agreed to try to rekindle their relationship.
salou, close to Barcelona


Earlier, a former neighbour described the family as ‘out of control’.

The man, who asked not to be named, added: ‘I didn’t really speak to them much.

‘The kids always seemed rowdy and out of control. They were always running into the road when out playing. I used to hear her in the garden berating the children like an old fishwife.’

Jenkins arrived in Salou, a popular party resort 70 miles south of Barcelona, on Friday with her daughter.

She booked the holiday through Thomas Cook and stayed at the three star £58-a-night California Garden hotel, 400 yards from the popular beach.

Salou hit the headlines in April when thousands of British students rampaged through the town in a drunken festival.

Sixty were treated for alcohol poisoning and one girl told police she was raped on a beach by a fellow student during Saloufest.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1304003/British-mother-abandoned-daughter-Spanish-beach-went-drinking.html#ixzz0x0a9HdHj

Just depends who one is regarding the law it seems. At least the little girl was found and taken care of in a childrens' home.

Just feel sorry for this little girl. What a wonderful holiday wandering around the beach alone while your mother gets rat-arsed...However, I can remember doing things unsupervised at that age..walking the dog, going for bike rides, although, admittedly, my parents weren't getting pissed at the time and I was aways with my twin sister.