Sentenced to nine months in prison for leaving her two year old son alone in the car for 40 minutes in Almeria

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Almeria

The sentence also bans her from approaching within 200 metres of the child for one year and nine months.

R. A.

Almería

Monday, 5 January 2026, 17:17

A woman has been given a nine-month prison sentence after leaving her two-year-old son alone in a locked car for over 40 minutes at a shopping centre, in what the court described as «serious neglect» and a «potential risk» to the child's safety.

The Provincial Court of Almería upheld the ruling, rejecting an appeal from the woman's defence that there was no intention to abandon her son. The court also confirmed a ban preventing her from coming within 200 metres of the child for a year and nine months.

The shocking incident took place on May 9, 2025, when the mother left her son sleeping in his car seat, unattended in the car park of the Torrecárdenas shopping centre.

Outside the protective scope of guardianship

The Court emphasised that for the case to be considered serious, it was not necesssary for there to have been a real danger. It was sufficient that the conduct was «ex ante dangerous», as it placed the child «outside the protective sphere of the guardianship».

The Chamber rejected the arguments of the defence, which admitted mere «neglect» or «loss of sight», and considered it to amount to «abandonment» on the basis of the statements of police officers, security guards and video recordings of the car park.

A security guard rasied the alarm when he spotted the child, and several announcements were made over the loudspeaker without success, making it necessary for the National Police to intervene. Officers had to wait a «long period of time» before the accused appeared. The court also noted that the woman was accompanied by other adults with whom she could have left the child.