A dad has lost custody of his daughter after he went to the pub and left his Amazon Alexa to 'babysit' her.
The 30-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, left the five-year-old girl alone at home to sleep as he watched her using the app on his phone. A magistrates court in Llandrindod Wells, Wales, heard this week that, while he was supposed to be looking after her at 8pm on August 13 last year, he "willingly left his daughter at home".
As reported by the Mirror, he was discovered to have been using a virtual assistant after being arrested by police for strangling his partner at the end of their drinking session. At around 2am, a neighbour had been alerted by screaming in the garden.
PC Phillip Coombs arrived at 2.10am to find the pair engaged in a row before they "had to be separated". The defendant and his new girlfriend had known each other for around seven months before the incident, prosecutor Stephen Davies said.
Describing the events of the evening, he said: "The female had been drinking on the day and he was with her. She went out about 8pm as did he. The child was left in the flat.
"They went to a number of pubs and she says she can’t remember anything until he was strangling her. She doesn’t recall how she got home.
"The police were called and marks were noticed on her neck. She said the child had been left in the house for a short period of time."
Gareth Walters, defending, described him as a "young man of previous good character" who had entered guilty pleas to serious offences. He said the man's daughter had been "taken away" and it was "largely him who cared for her".
"There was some effort by him to keep an eye on her but he knows the standards fell below what is expected of a parent", Mr Walters added.
The man pleaded guilty to intentional strangulation and child neglect and was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years.
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