Mahrah Al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family through marriage, has been sentenced to a community order after admitting child neglect following an incident in which she was found unconscious on a London street while a young child was left unattended.
The 32-year-old appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, where the court heard that she had taken cocaine in the days before she was found in west London on June 13.
Members of the public discovered Al Nahyan lying near an unconscious man, while a barefoot three-year-old toddler was playing nearby. They looked after the child until police arrived, an international media outlet reported.
Prosecutor Rio Pahlavanpour told the court that people intervened after noticing the child without shoes and playing with a scooter near moving traffic.
When Al Nahyan regained consciousness, she reportedly said: “This is not a slaughterhouse, why do you care so much? Why are you so worried?”
Police found drug paraphernalia on her when they searched her, although they did not recover any illegal substances.
Al Nahyan has since entered the Priory clinic in Woking, Surrey, for treatment for drug addiction.
Her defence lawyer Stephen Vullo KC told the court that she had not taken drugs on the day of the incident but was exhausted after using cocaine in the preceding days.
He said that she had shown “significant remorse and resolve to overcome her addiction”.
Vullo added that Al Nahyan intended to complete a three-month treatment programme before renting a property in the Guildford area, where she planned to attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings as a day patient.
“She made a grave mistake that day and she knows it,” he told the court.
Justice Johnson KC said that the child could have suffered serious harm without the intervention of members of the public. He noted that the child could have wandered off, become lost or been harmed by a stranger, while also experiencing distress upon seeing Al Nahyan and the man unconscious.
The court sentenced Al Nahyan to a two-year community order with a rehabilitation requirement and imposed a total fine of £6,114.
The court also heard that Al Nahyan receives a monthly allowance of £8,000.
