Mother who abandoned baby could be jailed in Portugal
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The British mother who allegedly abandoned her three-month-old son in Portugal risks imprisonment should she return to the Algarve, Portuguese police said.
"She would certainly be detained and face possible criminal charges and trial if she tried to set foot again in Portugal," said Captain Antonio Martin, commander of the National Republican Guard police in Albufeira where Katherine Penny lived with Marc Beddoes until they flew to England last Sunday, leaving baby Charlie behind.
The Public Prosecutor's office in Faro, the town where Charlie was abandoned, has opened legal proceedings against Ms Penny, 24, for the crime of child abandonment, and is considering whether to ask Britain to extradite her to stand trial in Portugal. "I am waiting for the prosecutor's office to summon me to present my report on the case," Capt Martins said yesterday.
If found guilty by a Portug-uese court, Ms Penney could be jailed for five years. If the child had suffered harm through being abandoned, she could face eight years. The crime is not grave enough for an automatic extradition request.
Charlie, meanwhile, has been declared ward of court and is being cared for at the Aboim Ascensão orphanage in Faro, where efforts are being made to arrange surgery on his cleft lip and palate, which make feeding difficult. Luis Villas-Boas, the orphanage's director, said: "He's had his first doctor's appointment. At three months he has no time to waste. If necessary we will pay the cost of the operation."
The decision on whether to press criminal charges is thought to hang on whether the act of abandonment was in reality a cry for help. A source close to the investigation said: "The prosecutor's office has to decide whether pursuit of Charlie's mother would be in her, or Charlie's, best interests."