UK: A couple accused of abandoning their three month-old baby in a pushchair near Faro airport in Portugal will not faces charges in Britain over the incident, police confirmed yesterday.
However, the Portuguese authorities are considering whether to begin extradition procedures against the couple after the baby, Charles, was discovered abandoned at the roadside in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Under Portuguese law the child's mother, Ms Katherine Penny (24) and her boyfriend, Mr Mark Beddoes (29), could be charged with child abandonment which carries a maximum eight-year prison sentence.
The distressing circumstances of the baby's abandonment emerged after Ms Penny and Mr Beddoes, who had been working in the timeshare apartment business in the resort town of Albufeira since last April, were telephoned from Portugal about Charles's fate and voluntarily attended Bournemouth police station on Tuesday night.
Mr Beddoes was released after a few hours without charge but Ms Penny was detained overnight for questioning about her failure to appear in court over traffic offences and subsequently arrested.
Ms Penny appeared in court yesterday on charges relating to "minor" motoring offences.
But as the baby spent another day in a Faro orphanage, Mr Beddoes claimed Ms Penny had "suckered" him into believing that Charles, born with a harelip and cleft palette, was being placed into care because they had financial problems and had decided to return to Britain.
Mr Beddoes insisted he knew nothing about Charles being left alone by the roadside and friends suggested the couple's intention was that Charles should eventually join them in Britain where he would receive free treatment for his condition.
Some reports yesterday suggested Mr Beddoes had claimed he was not the baby's father.
"I want to go back for Charles and bring him back to Britain," Mr Beddoes told the London Evening Standard.
"I miss his smile and I'm so angry and upset about what's happened. I've got a nice heart and I've been treated badly but I'm partly to blame. I should have been stronger. Now I want to do the right thing by Charles," Mr Beddoes said.
Mr Beddoes said Ms Penny had told him the baby would be handed over to Portugese authorities and placed in care.
He claimed Ms Penny abandoned Charles while he looked after their luggage prior to their flight to Gatwick airport on Saturday.
After a woman walking her dog discovered the baby in his pushchair, police brought him to Faro hospital where he was quickly recognised by a nurse who had cared for him when he was born at the hospital last October.