'Drunk' holiday parents return

Eamon McGuckin, 34, and his wife Antoinette, 32, from Maghera, Northern Ireland, were due to attend a hearing at the Family and Minors Court in Faro but failed to appear.

The Foreign Office said: "We understand that they have left Portugal and are en route to the UK. They are either en route or have already returned. There were no legal restrictions on them having to stay and there was no obligation for them to be in court."

Hotel staff in Vilamoura in the Algarve called police after the couple collapsed on Friday night.

They were taken to a health centre in nearby Loule while their children Adam, one, Amy, two, and Aaron, six, were temporarily taken into care at the Refugio Aboim Ascensao children's home in Faro.

The youngsters arrived at the home at 5am on Saturday and remained there until their parents came to collect them at midday after the on-duty public attorney ruled they should be returned.

The parents and their children arrived at the Aparthotel Mourabel in Vilamoura on Friday for a one-week holiday. On the same evening they had reportedly been drinking at a nearby bar with a happy hour where a pint of lager cost just one euro.

After going out for dinner at about 8pm, they returned to the hotel two hours later where the father passed out on the sofa in reception and could not be woken up. The hotel's manager said Mrs McGuckin was struggling with the pushchair.

The parents apparently discharged themselves from the health centre in Loule and returned to the hotel at about 7am on Saturday unaware of what happened.

On Monday night police officers from Portugal's Guarda Nacional Republicana spent 45 minutes at the couple's hotel apartment.