Baby abandoned in Dublin hotel

Gardai in Dublin have confirmed a two week-old baby boy was found alone in a hotel-room last weekend, having been left by a woman three hours previously. She is known to have flown to Germany later on Saturday morning.

A spokesman said: "Gardaí in Store Street were contacted by a hostel on Gardiner Street at approximately 8am on the 14th April after staff found a baby boy (approximately 2 week old) in a room."

The baby, who was found by a cleaner in a room at at the Glen Guest House on Gardiner Street, is now in the care of the HSE at Temple Street University Hospital.

The baby boy is reported to be "doing well".

The woman, who is believed to be the infant's mother, took a flight to Frankfurt. Police in Germany have made contact with her and she is understood to be reluctant to return to Dublin. Her parents are making arrangements to travel to Dublin in coming days to collect the baby.

Goran Josifov, receptionist at the guest house, recounted events after he began his shift on Saturday at 8am.

"I had a list of the rooms where the guests had already departed and I gave this to the cleaner. After a couple of minutes she came back to me and said she had heard a baby crying in one of these rooms. So I went with her and we opened the door and there was the baby, a very small baby, lying in the middle of the double bed.

"There was no-one else in the room. I thought I had to call the Garda. At first I thought maybe the woman would come back but then I thought, 'No, even if she does she shouldn't have left a baby alone for three hours."

He said the woman, in her mid-twenties, had checked in on Friday evening and checked out at 5.20am on Saturday.

"The Garda came and took the baby to the hospital. They took some things from the room." He said there had been a change of clothes for the baby, some nappies and a coke bottle which was taken to brush for finger prints.

He had not seen a baby-bottle or milk.

"They asked me to check the CCTV of the woman checking in and checking out, which I did and they came and took copies."

Mr Josifov said the woman appeared "very calm, not panicked" as she waited about 10 minutes for a taxi on Saturday morning.

He said he had contacted the taxi driver, who had told him the woman asked to be brought first to a hostel on nearby North Great George's Street, where she picked up "one huge suitcase" before travelling on to Dublin Airport.

"She said she was catching a Lufthansa flight at 7 am, though when I looked at the web-site the only Lufthansa flights were at 6.30 am and 11 am."

The cleaner who had first heard the baby, he said, had been "shocked and all shaking, that anyone could leave a baby alone".

"The baby was alone from about 5.20am until 8.20am. I think he must have been crying because he would have been hungry by then. He wasn't cold. The room was very warm when we went into it."