Couple fined £600 after child, 5, left alone in flat

Marek Milewski, 29, and Sabina Piechocka, 24, were supposed to be looking after the child, but left her in a flat in Callander, Perthshire, while they went to work.

They told the child they would phone her every 15 minutes but she let herself out and went to search for them.

Stirling Sheriff Court was told the child was later found making her way along a grass embankment beside the A84 road between Kilmahog and Callander – the so-called “Road to the Isles”.

Kevin Corrins, prosecuting, said two police officers on the road on May Bank Holiday this year “became concerned” when they saw the girl walking alone on the grass verge.

The depute fiscal said: “At about one in the afternoon police witnesses were travelling along the A84 in a marked police car when they saw a child running and walking along the grass embankment.

“They stopped the vehicle and took the child to the Trossachs Woollen Mill.”

Mr Corrins said police were able to determine that Piechocka worked in a nearby hotel and contacted her and asked her to come to the woollen mill.

Mr Corrins said: “Both accused attended and police discovered they had been at work and the child had been alone for several hours.”

He added: “The officers indicated that the road was extremely busy as it was a bank holiday weekend and the distance the child needed to walk to get to Piechocka was around 1.5 miles.”

Piechocka and Milewski, of Ledi Court, Callender, pleaded guilty to wilfully neglecting the child, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

The couple, representing themselves through a Polish interpreter, told the court that they believed that security doors on the property would keep the child safely inside the flat.

Sheriff William Gilchrist said social work reports showed that they had tried to make arrangements for someone to look after the child, but had been unable to do so, and he fined them both £300.