Authorities in Portugal have spoken of their shock after three young British children were temporarily taken into protective custody because their parents became so drunk they passed out.
Sam Marsden
Authorities in Portugal have spoken of their shock after three young British children were temporarily taken into protective custody because their parents became so drunk they passed out.
Hotel staff in Vilamoura, in the Algarve, called police after Eamon McGuckin, 34, and his wife Antoinette, 32, collapsed while on holiday on Friday night. The couple, believed to be from Magherafelt, Northern Ireland, were taken to a health centre in nearby Loule while their children, one-year-old Adam, two-year-old Amy and Aaron, six, were taken to the Refugio Aboim Ascensao children's home in Faro.
Dr Luis Villas-Boas, the home's director, said the incident was "very very shocking".
"It is the first time it has happened in my 22 years working at this home," he said.
"It was extreme neglect and abandonment. I hope somebody carries this information to the UK so these parents can at least be seen, because these children are indeed at risk."
The incident happened on the eve of the first anniversary of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, who went missing from her family's Algarve holiday flat while her parents dined nearby.
Meanwhile, Porugal's attorney-general yesterday appeared to pave the way for the authorities to shelve their investigation into Madeleine's disappearance.
Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro said Portuguese police should not be ashamed if they fail to solve the mystery of what happened to the little girl in an Algarve holiday resort on May 3 last year. Missing child cases are "extremely difficult to investigate" and only one in five are solved worldwide, he told journalists.
The attorney-general's comments follow reports suggesting that the inquiry by the Policia Judiciaria - Portugal's CID - has stalled and that no charges will be brought.
The Portuguese weekly Expresso reported on Friday that the police were preparing to exonerate Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, who remain formal suspects in her disappearance from their holiday flat.
Mr Pinto Monteiro told Portugal's Jornal de Noticias : "If the investigation results in failure, it is nothing which should shame the police."
