A British couple will tell a Portuguese judge today that they are not a risk to their three young children after allegedly falling unconscious following a holiday drinking session.

Eamon and Antoinette McGuckin have been ordered to attend a court in the Algarve this afternoon to answer questions about how they both collapsed after a family night out in the resort of Vilamoura.

Witnesses have told police that Mr McGuckin, a bank executive, and his wife were admitted to hospital for emergency treatment while their children, aged 1 to 6, were taken into protective care.

The alleged incident has high-lighted concern on the Algarve at the growing number of British parents drinking themselves into a stupor.

Emergency services said that it was no longer unusual to take British mothers and fathers to hospital after they had fallen into an alcoholic coma.

However, Mrs McGuckin, 32, has insisted that she had drunk only three lagers. She has asked the hospital for the results of blood tests to establish what caused her to collapse on Friday, the first day of their holiday.

A source close to the family said: “She told me that she wanted the blood tests because she had drunk only three beers.”

When asked what might have caused the couple to pass out, the source replied: “They were quite tired, they woke up at 4am to go to the plane and it was very hot here on Friday. They got a lot of sun and all these things together made her feel bad.”

Mr McGuckin, 34, is alleged to have collapsed on a sofa in the reception of the three-star Mourabel Hotel. His wife is alleged to have fallen unconscious in the hotel bar in front of her three children.

Two Portuguese police officers visited the couple, from Maghera, Co Londonderry, last night to issue a summons requiring them to appear before a judge at the Family and Children Court in nearby Faro at 3pm today.

A source close to the family said that the couple wanted to explain to the Portuguese judge what had happened and to give assurances that the children were not at risk.

“They want to say to the judge that the children are safe with them,” he said. “That is why they are staying here. They could have gone home on Saturday or Sunday. They are very sorry about what they did.”

A public prosecutor was considering whether to charge the couple, described by friends as model parents, with child abandonment and neglect, which carry jail sentences of up to five years.

However, a prosecution source said that it was “very unlikely” that the couple would be charged and that they would instead be let off with a warning and the evidence sent to the British authorities.

Friends and neighbours of the McGuckins in Maghera expressed shock at the weekend’s events. One described them as devoted parents, and another said that the couple’s alleged behaviour was totally out of character.

One friend, who said he had spoken to the couple in Portugal, claimed that they did not usually drink and feared they had had an unfortunate reaction to something they had drunk with dinner.

“I’ve never really seen them out socialising,” one neighbour said. “They just keep themselves to themselves and look after their wee ones. They’re lovely parents and their children are always happy.”

A friend said: “Antoinette is a very attentive mother, she spends an inordinate amount of time with her children and she wouldn’t even leave them in the garden for longer than five minutes without checking them.”

The case received massive media coverage in Portugal yesterday, where it was cited as an example of British holidaymakers drinking too much and putting their children at risk.

A source at the INEM (National Institute of Emergency Medicine) told Correio Da Manha that transporting tourists to hospital in an alcoholic coma “is a normal situation”. But he added that it was less normal for them to have children as young as 1 or 2 years old.

Jorge Craveiro, a retired restaurant owner, told Diario de Noticias: “There are couples who walk out drunk after dinner. Quite often it’s the children who have to help them to reach their apartments as the parents aren’t in a state to do it alone.”

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