Police find little girl abandoned by gambling father outside venue on the Costa Blanca

THE father of a nine-year-old girl is facing charges of having abandoned his daughter, when he allegedly left her in the street so that he could enter a gambling establishment in the town of Algemesí.

A local police patrol saw the girl sitting on the pavement outside the venue a little after midnight and, concerned for her safety, they stopped to check on her identity and welfare.

The child told the officers that she was waiting for her father, aged 33, and uncle who were inside the establishment. An officer went inside and identified the father playing on the games, and displaying clear signs of having consumed alcohol.

Still interested in the welfare of the child, the officers sought to locate her mother, who arrived and took her into her care.

The police have reported this situation to both the municipal department of Social Services and the Office of the Children’s Prosecutor to analyse whether the behaviour of the father derives any type of criminal offence.