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Kevin Reardon / 2010-07-10 11:18:42

As she passed an apartment block, a woman heard the pitiful cries of a child. She approached the ground floor window from where the cries came and spoke to a young girl. “She said she was alone and frightened and asked if the lady would stay with her.

Earlier in the month another local resident told police that he too had passed in the street and seen the child standing up and crying as she tried to open the window.

A local shopkeeper said that the good neighbour stayed with the child while she rang the police. This all occurred just before mid day last Monday morning. Desk Officers at the Provincial Police Station received the call at 11.58 and immediately sent a patrol from the Brigada de Seguridad Ciudadana (Citizen Security) to the house, which is located in the west of Malaga city.

The officers tried to calm the child, who explained through the window that his mother had left him and he was at home alone. A neighbour asked the child to find the keys to the door leading to patio. This he was able to do after which the officers were able to remove him from the apartment.

The child was taken to a government juvenile facility to which sources from the Delegation for Equality and Social Welfare the Board say that he was provisionally admitted pending a decision on his future care. The police mounted a search for the mother, a 42 year old Spanish national, who was eventually found at about 3 in the afternoon and arrested for neglect. After being interviewed and charged the woman was released pending her court appearance at a future date. The child remains in care.

A spokesperson told the Leader that agents are currently pursuing two lines of investigation. The first is with regard to the neglect that the child has and is likely to suffer whilst the second will be undertaken by the Child Protection Service who will study the family environment. An official report will then be sent to the court this week.

Recent Cases

9 November. Police arrested a young woman in Malaga after she left her two year old daughter alone with the front door open. A neighbour heard the cries of the child who said she was alone and asked him to stay with her.

29 November. A woman was arrested in Mijas for an alleged crime of temporary abandonment of her three year old child. Several neighbours alerted police who found the boy looking out a window. The mother was out shopping at the time.

January 4. A mother was arrested for allegedly leaving only her four year old son inside their home. Malaga Local Police asked firefighters to break broke down the door after waiting for over two hours for the woman to return.

June 25.
Three children were found alone and taken to a police station where the mother was reported for alleged mistreatment. The women had been arrested a month earlier for alleged neglect and accused of leaving her daughter in a car while she was drinking in a bar.