The 20-year-old female drug addict who removed her baby from the Son Espases neonatal unit on Tuesday last week has been detained by the National Police in Altea in the Alicante province.
The woman snatched the newly born baby after being told that it was to be taken into care on account of her background. She and her 23-year-old partner, who has also been detained, left Son Espases on a motorbike. While running out of the hospital, the baby was dropped, which led doctors to be highly concerned as to its welfare.
The mother had herself been placed in the care of child protection services back in 2009. She and her partner are well known to these services because of various incidents. They have no permanent place of residence and had been living in an apartment with eight people that was in an unhealthy state.
She has two other children, both of whom had already been declared to be at risk. Child protection services believed the newly born baby was extremely vulnerable due to prenatal abuse, i.e. toxic consumption by both parents, something that has also affected the other two children. The couple failed to cooperate, while they both had police records. For these reasons, social services decided to take the baby into care and to place it with foster parents.
Her father and other relatives live in Altea, which became the focus of the National Police hunt for the couple. They were located at the railway station with the three children. The judicial authority in Benidorm has ordered the three children to be taken into care, with the newly born baby having been admitted to hospital.
The couple face charges of child abduction and offences against family rights and duties.