Hampshire Constabulary has announced that Ashya King, the five-year-old boy removed from Southampton General Hospital without consent, was found on 30 August at 8pm following a sighting in the hotel the family were staying in. The hotel staff in Malaga, Spain, recognised Ashya and his family as a result of high levels of publicity in the media.
The hotel staff then contacted Spanish police and Ashya’s parents, Brett and Naghmeh King, were arrested.
Ashya was then taken to a high dependency unit at Materno Infantile Hospital in Malaga. He has now been moved to a general ward. Contact has been established between the lead consultant there and the lead consultant at Southampton General Hospital.
Assistant Chief Constable Chris Shead said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in the search – our own teams, the National Crime Agency, all police agencies in Europe and, specifically, both police agencies in Spain – the Spanish National Police and the Guardia Civil.
“All of our efforts resulted from explicit medical advice that Ashya’s life was in danger. I am very aware that there are comments about the rights and wrongs of our approach but when we are told by experts that any child’s life is at risk we will make no apologies for being as proactive as possible.”
“We now need to properly understand the parents’ motivation and engage with colleagues in the Crown Prosecution Service, who would lead on managing the extradition proceedings. It is only when we have done this that we will make a decision on what happens next.
“For this reason, this is the last statement that we will be making until further notice.”
