A father leaves his two daughters locked in the office for three days and declares that they do not fall at his partner's house

The detainee, who has joint custody and denies that they were so incommunicado, declares that they did not fit in their partner's house.

The National Police have arrested in Elche the father of two children under 12 and 15 years for leaving them locked up and incommunicado during three days in an office, police sources reported yesterday. The minors were released after the police were alerted last Sunday by the mother of the girls. The father, after being arrested, denied that they had been locked up for three days and claimed that he took them to the office because his current partner has three minor children and they don't have space enough to live the two adults and the five minors in that address.

The detainee has custody shared with his ex-wife and last Thursday began the fifteen-day period that corresponds to the father. Precisely from that day until Sunday is the period in which the minors claim to have been held incommunicado in their father's office.

The Elche Police Station was alerted last Sunday by a woman who called the police and reported that her ex-husband had his two daughters locked in an office located on Lope de Vega street.

A patrol went to the place immediately and the mother explained that a friend of his had previously notified him after seeing the two minors asking for help from a window from the office, located on the first floor or mezzanine.

The policemen themselves displaced to Lope de Vega Street could see how the minors were looking out and asking for help because they said they had been locked up since last Thursday night.

They forced the door to enter

The National Police tried unsuccessfully to locate the father of the minors and, as it did not appear, they chose to force the entrance door to access the office and free the two young women who asked for help.

The place where the minors were locked up was inspected by the Police and did not meet habitability conditions. It had cast lights and lacked a shower, beds, rooms and kitchen. However, the father argued before the agents otherwise.

The minors assured the agents that they were there since last Thursday and that their father only came at noon to bring them a snack and at night to sleep there with them. The mobile phones had them without battery so they could not communicate with the outside to ask for help.

The father denied after his arrest that the daughters had been so long locked up in the office.

Once released the mother took care of both minors and the National Police mobilized to locate the father. That same day the parent was arrested for a crime of abandonment of minors and transferred to police units where the corresponding proceedings were instructed before making it available to the Elche guard court.