Mother arrested for abandoning her autistic 5-year-old son in Gran Canaria

The National Police have arrested a 38-year-old woman in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, for a crime of child abandonment, after she had left her youngest son alone at home for an entire afternoon and evening, and when she returned home showed signs of being under the influence of alcohol and narcotic substances. The five-year-old boy, with autism, was assisted by agents who took him to the maternal and child hospital for evaluation in the capital.

The incident took place on Saturday afternoon on Calle Bernardo de la Torre in the capital of Gran Canaria, when a neighbour called 091 to report a fight was taking place between several people outside her home.

Several police patrols went to the scene, and found a woman, who was visibly drunk or under the influence of another narcotic substance, arguing with other people on public roads.

After interviewing several witnesses, they stated that the woman had been in a bar all afternoon, having left her 5-year-old son alone at home, who is autistic, and they saw how, on several occasions during that afternoon, the young boy had gone down to the public thoroughfare to be sick, which is why they were reprimanding the mother when she returned home late at night.

Because of this, several police officers accompanied the woman to her home to check the health of her son and the conditions in which he had left in, and transferred him to hospital for a check-up.

The witnesses claim that this is a regular occurrence by the mother, who is know in the Arenales area for practising prostitution and hanging around in bars leaving her son home alone.

For all these reasons, the agents of the National Police proceeded to arrest the woman as the alleged perpetrator of a crime of abandonment of a minor. The facts were immediately brought to the attention of the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office, who ordered that the minor be temporarily admitted to a reception centre immediately.