A lawyer who allegedly locked his one-year-old daughter in his car for an hour while he went shopping at a Tesco supermarket with his three-year-old son has been cautioned by police.
Alex Keenan, 30, is said to have left the girl in his vehicle outside the store in Skegness, Lincolnshire, before a passer-by heard her ‘screaming her head off’ and alerted police.
The tax expert from Boston was then arrested on suspicion of child neglect when he returned to the vehicle and later accepted a caution under the Children and Young Persons Act.
However the associate at agriculture specialists Roythornes Solicitors was not formally charged - and his wife Katherine, 30, told the Daily Mirror that his arrest was ‘a bit disproportionate’.
CCTV allegedly showed Mr Keenan had been away from the car for an hour, and Mrs Keenan was called to take the children while officers took her husband to a police station for questioning.
Mr Keenan told Mirror reporter Louie Smith: ‘My employers are aware of what happened. I can’t make any further comment.’
A Lincolnshire Police spokesman said: ‘We were notified by a member of the public who said the child was screaming her head off in the car.
‘As the officers arrived the father was coming back to the vehicle so they didn’t need to force entry.’
Car park: The tax expert from Boston was arrested on suspicion of child neglect when he returned to his vehicle outside a Tesco supermarket (above) in Skegness, Lincolnshire, and later accepted a police caution
The law in England does not state an age when an adult can leave a child on their own, although it is an offence to leave a child alone if it places them at risk.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) advises parents that babies, toddlers and very young children should never be left alone.
A member of the public said the child was screaming her head off in the car
Lincolnshire Police spokesman
It adds in advice on the Government website that children under 12 are rarely mature enough to be left alone for a long time, while those under 16 should not be left alone overnight.
In August, the Daily Mail reported how a survey by Kwik Fit Insurance Services revealed a quarter of parents admit leaving their children alone in a car while they go out on an errand.
Even those as young as five are sometimes left unattended, with the average parent not returning for 22 minutes. Younger couples were prone to leaving their children in the car - with 42 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds confessing they had done so
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