Overview
- On June 11–12 police found three British children aged six months, about one year, and four alone in a room at the Holiday World Resort in Benalmádena and the children were taken to a Malaga hospital for checks.
- Police said the six-month-old reportedly tested positive for cocaine at the hospital, a finding described in coverage as a reported result rather than a fully published forensic record.
- A specialist family unit of Spain’s National Police (UFAM) arrested the parents overnight and the couple spent a night in custody before being brought to court.
- The parents accepted a plea bargain and were each sentenced to one year and four months in prison with the terms suspended, disqualified from parental authority for two years and eight months, and banned from coming within 500 metres of the children for two years.
- The Junta de Andalucía’s social services have placed the children in emergency foster care and say they will contact the British consulate to coordinate repatriation to the UK, with foster placements and longer-term arrangements to be decided next.