In bare terms, put like that, it's all too easy to criticise and judge. Bad mother! Heartless! Abandonment! But then, when you look at the circumstances behind the 'crime' you find something very different indeed.

This woman had been working for 16 hours a day, doing two jobs, to support her family and sister who has unspecified mental health issues. And by the sounds of things she wasn't getting any thanks - or help - whatsoever. After coming home one day, dog tired from work, she encountered her children and her sister doing nothing but screaming at her. And her tether snapped. She gathered a few things and walked out of the house. She ended up in Cardiff Airport and just jumped on the first available flight. It could have been anywhere. It happened to be Spain. And she landed there with no money, no accomodation, no nothing.  It certainly wasn't a 'holiday' in any sense that I understand the word. After a couple of days she came to her senses and her family - who had stepped in to look after her kids - arranged for her return.

What I want to know is how the authorities decided it was a good idea for this poor woman to be prosecuted. What good does it do - to the woman herself or her family or, indeed, society - for her to be given a criminal record because she ran out of capacity to cope with an incredibly trying situation? Where were the authorities in all this in the first place?

This woman was working 2/3rds of the day. She had no time for herself, barely any time to eat and sleep. It doesn't sound like she's a bad woman from my point of view. To me, she was struggling to do the very best for her family in very bad circumstances and I'm not surprised the pressure got to her in the end. And, being the good mother she actually is, she's reportedly appalled at her own actions.

And the State prosecutes her. And we all know that having a criminal record - suspended sentence or not - is really going to help her get her life back on track, don't we?

I'm appalled. Not because a mother found that her circumstances completely broke her, but that the State thinks that it's a good idea to heap insult upon injury by considering that she needed to be 'taught a further lesson' by means of prosecution. It seems to me that the State should, instead, be offering her assistance in caring for her children... childcare or daycare, financial assistance, medical care for the ill sister, someone to turn to when things get too much. 

She should never have been prosecuted. She should have received compassion and care from those who have it within their power to help but chose not to. 

If ever you're asked what is going wrong with the world, then this is a good example.