Three children left alone as parents found drunk in nearby Sevilla bar

Imagine hearing your neighbours’ children crying for hours on end and getting a gut feeling that something just isn’t right, that exact feeling that eventually leads you to calling the police. That is what happened in Sevilla last week, when officers arrived at a family home and discovered three children aged just one, three and five alone inside, with two crying from hunger and cold.

The children had been left without an adult to supervise them, while the home itself was in very poor sanitary conditions, with accumulated dirt, cockroaches and other insects. Police also found knives, blades and other potentially dangerous objects within reach of the children.  Several neighbours had contacted the Policía Nacional after hearing the children crying for several hours. They also told officers that this was not the first time these parents had left their children alone while they went out. 

Three children found alone inside the home

When police arrived at the property they found a heartbreaking scenario, they did not even have to force their way inside because  the three-year-old child opened the door for them, allowing them to enter and check on the other children. Two of those children were together in the living room and were crying due to being hungey and cold.

The five-year-old was asleep alone in one of the bedrooms. Officers attended to the children before examining the conditions inside the property,  when they did, what they found turned their stomachs, they described the house as having very deficient sanitary conditions for the children. The different rooms contained a high level of accumulated dirt, with cockroaches and other insects present crawling around.

Dangerous objects within the children’s reach

If the filth alone was bad enough there was also a lack of clothing, food and other basic items for the children. Knives, blades and various other potentially dangerous objects had been left within their reach. Police said that, without an adult present to supervise them, those objects could have caused serious injuries. 

The children were therefore not simply left alone in the property, they had been badly neglected, according to the police account, they were in a home where basic conditions for their well-being were seriously deficient and where objects capable of causing injury were accessible to them.

Where were the parents

While officers were dealing with the children, they also needed to find their parents. Neighbours told police that the parents were known to be out drinking alcohol in the bars around the home. Officers established a search operation to locate them after discovering that the children had been left alone. 

The parents were found just minutes later in a bar close to the property. They were drinking alcohol and, according to the Policía Nacional, both were in an evident state of intoxication.

Parents arrested after being found intoxicated

Both parents were arrested on the spot once the officers located them, leaving the three children in police care.  The circumstances also meant that this was not the first reported occasion on which the children had been left without their parents.

Neighbours told officers that it was not the first time the parents had gone out and left the children alone without any supervision and although the police account does not give details of when those previous incidents occurred or how long the children were left without supervision it is known that there was already knowledge of this happening.  The three children were then taken to Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, where they received medical attention and underwent a medical assessment. 

Case referred to child protection authorities

The case has now been passed to the Fiscalía de Menores de Sevilla and the relevant Social Services.  Police have not reported that the children suffered injuries from the objects found inside the property. Their account instead details the circumstances in which they were discovered: alone, with two crying from hunger and cold, in an unsanitary home filled with dirt, cockroaches and other insects, without adequate food and clothing, and with potentially dangerous objects within their reach.