A mother who left her 16-month-old daughter alone in a hotel room while she went for a night out with a friend has been given a police caution for neglect.
The Mexican woman left the Ibis hotel at around 7.30pm when she went to meet a friend and left her child alone until she returned at about 2.30am with a man, the family division of the High Court in London heard.
Staff heard the little girl, realised that she was alone and called police.
The woman was arrested when she returned to the Ibis, and accepted a caution by police. Her daughter was taken into police protection.
Details of the case were revealed as a judge made a ruling on a family court dispute between the parents of the young girl.
Mr Justice Peter Jackson was told that the woman had become involved in a legal fight with the little girl's English father - her estranged husband - who was also in his early 30s.
He said he had been asked to make decisions on the latest stage of that litigation at a family court hearing.
The judge said the woman and the child, now two, had been in England visiting the man at the time of the hotel incident last year.
He did not say where the hotel was.
Mr Justice Jackson said the little girl had been taken into police protection following her mother's arrest - and placed with her father.
A judge had subsequently barred the woman from removing the child from the jurisdiction of England and Wales following an application by the father, Mr Justice Jackson was told.
Mr Justice Jackson said he had become involved after the woman asked to be allowed to take the little girl back to Mexico.
He ruled against her after analysing issues relating to the toddler's 'habitual residence'.
The judge concluded that the little girl had not been wrongfully retained in England by the father under the terms of an international legal convention.
He was told that the couple had met in Mexico six years ago after the father travelled abroad for work.
The judge said the family could not be identified.
