Children Put in Care After Drunk Holiday Couple Collapse

A British couple who allegedly got so drunk while on holiday in Portugal that their three children had to be taken into temporary care are "very unlikely" to face neglect charges, a Portuguese judicial source said yesterday.

Hotel staff in the Algarve resort of Vilamoura called police after Eamon McGuckin, 34, and his wife Antoinette, 32, from Maghera, Northern Ireland, collapsed on Friday night. The hotel barman said the couple had been drinking at a nearby bar which offered pints of lager for €1 (78p) before taking their children - aged one, two and six - out for dinner at about 8pm.

When the family returned to Aparthotel Mourabel a couple of hours later, Mr McGuckin passed out on a sofa in reception. According to the hotel's manager, Mrs McGuckin then struggled to get the children back to their flat before she too passed out.

After staff called the police, the couple were taken to a health center in nearby Loule while their children were temporarily taken into care at the Refugio Aboim Ascensao children's home in Faro.

Mr and Mrs McGuckin are thought to have discharged themselves from the clinic the next morning and returned to the hotel at about 7am unaware of what had happened.

Dr Luis Villas-Boas, director of the home where the children were taken, said that when Mr and Mrs McGuckin arrived to collect the youngsters just before midday they looked very upset and asked whether the media knew about what had happened. The incident coincided with the first anniversary of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from the resort of Praia da Luz, 45 miles from Vilamoura.

Villas-Boas, who described the matter as "very, very shocking", said: "It is the first time it has happened in my 22 years working at this home. It's normal for a couple for one to drink while the other doesn't drink. The problem here is they were both passed out." He added: "If they were not in an apart hotel and were staying by themselves in an apartment, I do not want to speculate on what could have happened to children of six, two and one whose parents were passed out."

A senior court source in Faro said the one-off incident was not sufficiently serious to lead to charges. Although it was "very unlikely" that the McGuckins would be prosecuted in Portugal, the source said that police, hospital and social services reports would probably be gathered and sent to the UK authorities. A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said that it had offered consular assistance to the McGuckins.

Witnesses and friends said the couple's alleged behavior was not at all like them. A barman at the hotel's tapas bar, who did not want to be named, said they were well-dressed, "nice people" with well-behaved children.

Another barman added: "I don't think they meant to drink that much but when they tried to stop I think they just couldn't. They seemed very nice people. It is a great shame this happened."

The McGuckins refused to comment, but friends and neighbors in Maghera said they were very surprised.

One neighbor described the couple as devoted parents. "I've never really seen them out socializing," she said. "They're lovely parents and their children are always happy."