A baby girl currently is in hospital for her own safety after she was removed from her Irish parents by Albufeira police.
The 14-month old girl is now under the protection of the Juvenile Court which is to decide her and her parents’ fate.
The baby girl’s mother was seen staggering, apparently drunk, on the balcony of her holiday hotel while holding her daughter in her arms.
Complaints led to police involvement with the baby being removed from the scene and the parents detained. The baby child had some bruises and authorities are trying to determine how these were caused but the hospital staff say she is fine.
The case is similar to that of Stephen Street and Colette McPartland in 2009 who were living in Carcavelos and who were accused of child neglect and drunkenness, resulting in their two year old daughter being taken into care.
The couple’s daughter was taken to the Oeiras Emergency Housing Centre for Children by police after the parents were deemed unfit to take care of the child, and reportedly were drunk at a café near their home leaving the girl playing ‘nearby.’
Staff at the café contested the police version that the girl had been allowed to wander off unsupervised, she was released after ten days and in a subsequent interview on British breakfast TV, Mr Street commented, “It’s not a nice feeling to realise that your children could be virtually kidnapped by armed people. Social services have completely exonerated us. They have checked our backgrounds, talked to our neighbours, our crèche and our family doctor, so we have been completely exonerated.”
In Albufeira the fate of the baby has yet to be decided and the parents, reportedly from Ireland, have been questioned by police.
