Almeria mother jailed for abandoning baby in baking sun

A MOTHER was jailed for leaving her infant daughter locked in a car under the baking Almeria sun.

Judges handed the Romanian woman a one-year sentence for the crime of temporary abandonment.

Her mother, the child’s grandmother, received a nine-month term. The women left the two-year-old girl alone while they went shopping near Almeria’s train station.

She was strapped into her seat for 50 minutes as temperatures soared to 38 degrees. Police officers smashed through the car window to rescue her after her cries for help alerted passersby.

The window was open barely an inch. The girl had no water, was moderately dehydrated, and distressed. An expert told the court that temperatures inside the car may have approached 50 degrees.

The judge ruled that the women’s actions could not be excused by mere forgetfulness. Instead they had intentionally set shopping as their priority, knowing full well how hot it was and that the girl was alone.

Security camera footage showed that there was no real need for the grandmother to tag along, as the shopping was light. At no point did either woman return to check in on the toddler.

Had the police not intervened the girl would have spent another 20 minutes trapped inside.A doctor testified that the women’s actions posed a substantial risk to the child’s health.

A proposed two-year sentence was rejected following testimony from the girl’s father, and the court’s satisfaction that she had physically recovered.