John Culatto
TWO British parents had to pay £200 each after police officers found them drunk at a Gibraltar bar with their baby in a pram.
An anonymous member of the public tipped off the cops who raced to Waterport Road.
Once there, they started talking to Rosie Richardson Jones, 35, and Bradley Skeats, 42, who appeared drunk.
They had their nine-month-old baby in a pram with them during this whole time.
“They appeared intoxicated, to slur their words and to be unable to grasp the seriousness of their actions,” a police spokesperson said.
“They were arrested after admitting that they had been drinking all afternoon.”
Royal Gibraltar Police (RGP) officers then drove them up to New Mole House and kept them in custody overnight.
The next morning, the Magistrates Court tried the couple for the charge of ‘Being Intoxicated While in Charge of a Child’.
Both defendants pleaded guilty to the charge.
“The RGP’s Safeguarding Team and the Care Agency are working together to put a safeguarding plan in place for the nine month-old baby,” the statement said.
It followed the 2019 case of East Sussex mum Kim Horley who got drunk at Gibraltar airport with her child.
She told the magistrate at the time she was drinking because of her ‘fear of flying’.
The offence of being drunk while in charge of a child is a British law that dates back to the UK’s 1902 Licencing Act.
Experts disagree exactly how much alcohol is needed to be drunk enough to be a danger to a child.
Normally, the police officers need to make their own decision on the spot if parents are too drunk to protect their child from danger.
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