Footballer and Wife Charged with Child Neglect

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/crime-courts/celtic-player-and-his-wife-charged-with-child-neglect-1.1078834



"Celtic star Charlie
Mulgrew and his wife Alana have been charged with child neglect
following an alleged incident where a child was left alone in a car in
freezing temperatures.

Bra entrepreneur Michelle Mone initially phoned police after allegedly spotting a baby in a vehicle without its parents.
Ms Mone was Christmas shopping on December 22 when she said she noticed the baby in the car park of Costco in Springburn.
She phoned police and officers arrived to investigate, along with paramedics, to assess whether the child had been harmed.
It is understood that Mulgrew, 24, and 22-year-old Alana have hired a legal team headed up by Paul McBride QC.
A Crown Office spokesman confirmed that a report had been made to the procurator fiscal.
He
said: “The procurator fiscal at Glasgow has received a report
concerning a 24-year-old male and a 22-year-old female in connection
with an alleged incident on December 22, 2010.
“The report is under consideration.”
Strathclyde Police confirmed that a couple have been charged.
Police
questioned the couple at the time of the incident and initially
cautioned them before charging them under Section 12 of the Children and
Young Persons Act.
The baby was examined by paramedics, but was found to be unharmed.
The pair have reportedly told friends the matter is “a big misunderstanding”.
The couple insist they had only gone in to the store briefly and kept a close eye on the car.
A source close to the couple said: “The pair of them are devastated but are preparing for the likelihood of a court case.
“They deny any wrongdoing whatsoever – they had the car in sight at all times and it was locked because the baby was sleeping.”
After the incident, Ms Mone used online social network Twitter to give her account of why she had called police.
“Myself
... and store staff were extremely concerned about a baby left in a
car, not in sight of front door and car alarm going off,” she wrote."


Mods, can you please move this to the appropriate place, if you need to, or merge it if this story is already on here.


As an aside, it adds an added dimension to what happened that it was a 'celebrity' (in that she features in the media for reasons other than owning a very successful business) that called the police. I'm surprised this event wasn't more widely reported in the press. Presumably the footballer has a PR agent working for him .

I'll leave it here for the moment as I think child neglect by celebs will be of interest.

Good for Ms Mone, I don 't like her bras much but she gets my vote after this one!

Very bad, but really how is it different to leaving 3 children with a combined age of 7 in an unlocked apartment in a foreign country whilst the parents went on the piss? Nothing happened to the child in the car, yet the one who went missing is now due to be made a saint along with her parents??? Huh!!!

jejune wrote:
Bra entrepreneur Michelle Mone initially phoned police after allegedly spotting a baby in a vehicle without its parents.
Ms Mone was Christmas shopping on December 22 when she said she noticed the baby in the car park of Costco in Springburn.
She phoned police and officers arrived to investigate, along with paramedics, to assess whether the child had been harmed.

It is understood that Mulgrew, 24, and 22-year-old Alana have hired a legal team headed up by Paul McBride QC.

Silly g*ts. They should have gone on the lash in Portugal, they'd be millionaires by the end of the year.

It really was freezing cold in that area at that time. My niece, who is pregnant, was stuck on the M8, not too far from Springburn, for 8 hours!

I'm a Bra entrepreneur, but Mrs S calls it a fetish...

Seriously though, I hope this pair get the maximum penalty that can be given and are publicly reviled by the press. This is one way that the McCanns may be exposed as child neglectors who lost a daughter, (at the very least) yet have faced no official recrimination. In fact they have been placed on a pedestal as sainted examples of child protection!

Stop now before rant mode takes over.
ms

G McCann fantasized about being a professional footballer. Might have landed a better looking wag in his daydreams too.

docmac wrote:G McCann fantasized about being a professional footballer. Might have landed a better looking wag in his daydreams too.

How very unkind an observation, doc.....

Ooh... erm...

The pros think it would have been fine to leave this BABY alone in a car if it were not quite so chilly... And then go on to defend the McCanns' actions of leaving the kiddies all snug in their beds while 'dining a handful of yards away' as much more responsible. NO!! These are BOTH examples of serious neglect you fool!

My daughter says that if my grandson is asleep in the car and she stops for fuel, she waits until there is a pump directly outside the window of the shop. She then locks the car and she can see it from the shop. If little laddie moves, the alarm goes off!

AnnaEsse wrote:My daughter says that if my grandson is asleep in the car and she stops for fuel, she waits until there is a pump directly outside the window of the shop. She then locks the car and she can see it from the shop. If little laddie moves, the alarm goes off!

I reckon that poster believes the parents (what else is new) who claim they were only in the store briefly and had the car in sight at all times. Bra lady says the car was not in line of sight. The store staff were concerned. And the paramedics had time to pitch up. I know who I believe...

They can always use the McCann defense, that it is well within the bounds of responsible parenting to leave your child alone as long as there is a "perfect checking system" in place. Surely they were not gone for more than one half hour, which the McCanns and their supporters believe is a reasonable amount of time to abandon your young toddlers and babies.

However, what they did was incomprehensible. I cannot even fathom why one of them could not have stayed in the car with the baby while the other person went into the store. Was it too cold for them? Surely any reasonable people would have had one person stay with the baby.

I agree with others who say that this child must have been left alone for alot longer than the people claim. A Costco run for me takes approximatley one half hour and I buy relatively few items. They must have been gone pretty long for the police to have arrived before they returned to the car.

AnnaEsse wrote:I'll leave it here for the moment as I think child neglect by celebs will be of interest.

It depends how double you like your standards Anna. Found the Gaspar thread yet, by the way?

sans_souci wrote:

AnnaEsse wrote:I'll leave it here for the moment as I think child neglect by celebs will be of interest.

It depends how double you like your standards Anna. Found the Gaspar thread yet, by the way?

This story is related to the McCann case since it's about neglect and since you mention 'double standards,' that's what seems to be operating in cases of child neglect. So, this is pertinent.

When I find out what has happened to the Gasper thread, as I said before, I'll let everyone know.

jejune wrote:As an aside, it adds an added dimension to what happened that it was a 'celebrity' (in that she features in the media for reasons other than owning a very successful business) that called the police. I'm surprised this event wasn't more widely reported in the press. Presumably the footballer has a PR agent working for him .

He plays for a Scottish team so of no real interest to most of the nationals. In fairness I did read the story on the BBC website before Christmas.

docmac wrote:

AnnaEsse wrote:My daughter says that if my grandson is asleep in the car and she stops for fuel, she waits until there is a pump directly outside the window of the shop. She then locks the car and she can see it from the shop. If little laddie moves, the alarm goes off!

I reckon that poster believes the parents (what else is new) who claim they were only in the store briefly and had the car in sight at all times. Bra lady says the car was not in line of sight. The store staff were concerned. And the paramedics had time to pitch up. I know who I believe...

If the car was in their line of sight at all times, surely they must have noticed - on one of the numerous occasions they looked up to check on it - that there was a group of agitated-looking people around it, including - eventually - police officers? What's the point of making a point of saying you parked "in sight of" a store if you don't notice when strangers start hanging around your car, looking at your precious, vulnerable, sleeping child?

There are no limits to human stupidity.

Claudia79 wrote:There are no limits to human stupidity.

don't bet your last dollar on it.

The difference between this case and the McCanns is that the McCanns, I think I am right in saying, were deemed to have shown their intention to check on their children and if you can successfully argue that you had no intent of neglect, then it seems you can get away with neglect charges. Because the McCanns could 'prove' they checked on their children, then they could argue there was no intent, but this footballer and his wife could not argue the same, presumably because of the growing group of people observing the car for a period of time that must have exceeded what would be normally regarded as an 'appropriate' length of time to leave a child unchecked. Therefore, it seems to me not good enough to say simply that the place you left your child was within your sightline, because it may as well be tens of thousands of miles difference if you cannot prove you checked at regular intervals. This is why it is not deemed as neglect if you go upstairs to change beds and leave a child sleeping downstairs, or go outside to cut the grass and leave a child asleep in the house, because you can 'prove' that at intervals you checked on your child's welfare (or because its a private dwelling, others cannot prove you did not check at intervals if you say you did). However, I think if you are unable to prove your checks and the time exceeds that which would be regarded as an appropriate duration, then its different. I am sure this is why the McCanns found it so important to draw up a timeline of checking with their friends and have everyone say the same, especially as they could argue that at other Mark Warner complexes where a system of checking by staff is in operation, the duration was 30 minutes. I do not know if the law is the same anywhere else, but I am pretty sure that if you can prove checking, then the intention to cause neglect is unproven. I guess it could be a grey area as well because to most people's minds 30 minutes is a long time for your children to be out of sight and earshot, and it may well depend on the circumstances a child is left under as well. Again, I feel sure that as the McCanns left their children asleep in their beds, they were able to argue that 30 minute intervals of checking was reasonable, whether we agree or not.