Couple cleared of neglect charge

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/foyle_and_west/8493864.stm

Version 0 of 1.

An Omagh couple whose five-year-old girl was found wandering barefoot in the snow at 0530 GMT on a February morning have been cleared of neglect.

Omagh Magistrates Court had heard the girl was found outside a supermarket on a wintery morning in 2009.

Police traced her home by following her footprints in the snow and found her parents asleep in a bedroom.

The couple were cleared after the court heard her mother told police she thought someone had taken her child.

Police said that when they went to the house, there was a strong smell of alcohol and an officer found the two accused asleep in bed with a baby in an upstairs bedroom.

Delivering his verdict, District Judge Greg McCourt said there was no suggestion the two children were in poor health, injured or unclean.

He did not believe the risk of a five-year-old leaving the house and walking in the snow could have been foreseen.

The couple hugged and kissed as the two charges of child neglect were dismissed.