British woman given prison sentence for leaving her 11 year old daughter alone on a Spanish beach

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_26985.shtml

The 11 year old was left for more than two hours on the beach in Salou while the mother went drinking in local bars

The Catalan regional police, Los Mossos d’Esquadra, arrested a British woman on the beach at Salou in Tarragona last Sunday night, after she had left her 11 year daughter alone on the beach while she went drinking in a local bar.

The ‘El Punt’ newspaper said the child had been left alone on the beach for more than two hours. The alarm was raised by the parents of another child who was playing with the girl, and the mother was later found, under the influence of alcohol, in a nearby bar. The couple then took the girl to the California Garden hotel where she was staying, and there the hotel staff decided to inform the police.

The 11 year old was taken to the police station and then Child Protection services took her to a specialist centre.

The mother appeared in court in Tarragona on Tuesday and was sentenced to six months in prison.

However under Spanish law, as she has no previous record and because the sentence is less than two years, she will in fact not have to go to prison.

mara thon wrote:http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_26985.shtml

The 11 year old was left for more than two hours on the beach in Salou while the mother went drinking in local bars

The Catalan regional police, Los Mossos d’Esquadra, arrested a British woman on the beach at Salou in Tarragona last Sunday night, after she had left her 11 year daughter alone on the beach while she went drinking in a local bar.

The ‘El Punt’ newspaper said the child had been left alone on the beach for more than two hours. The alarm was raised by the parents of another child who was playing with the girl, and the mother was later found, under the influence of alcohol, in a nearby bar. The couple then took the girl to the California Garden hotel where she was staying, and there the hotel staff decided to inform the police.

The 11 year old was taken to the police station and then Child Protection services took her to a specialist centre.

The mother appeared in court in Tarragona on Tuesday and was sentenced to six months in prison.


However under Spanish law, as she has no previous record and because the sentence is less than two years, she will in fact not have to go to prison.

That will really teach her a lesson, NOT SENDING HER TO PRISON. What a joke.

I'm not sure that sending the mother to prison would've been fair on her daughter to be honest. Who would've looked after her during that period ? Despite her mother's selfish attitude, the little girl would probably suffer from being deprived of her mum for such a long time.

fedrules wrote:I'm not sure that sending the mother to prison would've been fair on her daughter to be honest. Who would've looked after her during that period ? Despite her mother's selfish attitude, the little girl would probably suffer from being deprived of her mum for such a long time.

I agree, and the poor girl would probably have felt guilty. At least the mother has been named and shamed.... her family and neighbours will watch her like a hawk now and no doubt social services will be all over her. I think that's punishment enough if she lives to be 100 people will still remember her shame so she'll never escape what she did.

fedrules wrote:I'm not sure that sending the mother to prison would've been fair on her daughter to be honest. Who would've looked after her during that period ? Despite her mother's selfish attitude, the little girl would probably suffer from being deprived of her mum for such a long time.

she should have thought of that before leaving her daughter alone in a strange country. Does this mean Kate Mccann shouldnt be locked up either if found guilty of anything, The twins would be deprived of their mother too. It cant be one rule for one mother and another for every other mother no matter what the age

I imagine it would have been a very different sentencing had the child come to any harm, or "disappeared"

The poor child is in a no win situation. Whichever way you look at it she loses. Whether the mother is in prison or being watched by social services, the girl still has a mother who doesn't give a damn about her. It's lose lose all the way for the daughter.

her mom has a drinking problem, to be fair, if she was hammered at the time she refused to leave the bar and take her daughter, she may be a more caring person when she is sober. let's hope so.

So, leaving the child alone for 2 hours gets you two years potentially... and CPS looking over your shoulder (or in McCanns case I am sure just being invited over for cakes and tea) - that would explain a lot about why the group of friends (T 7) might invent a fictional time line of checking even if their own children were not damaged or missing.

I don't see that it's all that different from the McCann case because the Mark Warner staff did warn them about it and ask them to use the sitter and I believe offered a FREE sitter to these cheapskates - and they haughtily rejected it, "We know best how to care for our children" is the line I seem to recall. They may not have been drunk at the time they were refusing care for their children but the night prior when they went off and left them to cry for 90 minutes they probably were drunk, 8 bottles of wine with dinner then Chaplins afterwards because the Tapas bar ran out of free suds.

The difference is the paid spokesperson. With the government contacts and press influence.