Ashya King, five, who was taken from a UK hospital where he was being treated for a brain tumour. Photo: PA Wire

British police yesterday defended their decision to launch an international search after a five-year-old boy with a brain tumour was taken out of hospital by his family without doctors’ consent.

Ashya King’s parents took him from Southampton General Hospital on Thursday afternoon and travelled on a ferry to France with the boy and his six siblings before heading south to Spain.

Brett King, 51, and Naghemeh King, 45, were arrested on Saturday at 10pm local time by Spanish police acting on a European arrest warrant in Velez-Malaga on the Costa del Sol.

Assistant Chief Constable Chris Shead, of Hampshire Constabulary, said he was aware the police’s approach had created a “significant amount of debate”. He said: “We had medical experts telling us that Ashya was in grave danger. Medical experts were saying to us that if he didn’t get the care that he needed, there was a potential threat to his life. Faced with those circumstances, I make no apology for the police being as proactive as we possibly can to actually find Ashya and ensure that he gets the help he needed.”

I make no apology for the police being as proactive as we possibly can

Shead added: “I would much sooner be standing here facing criticism for being proactive than to stand here and face criticism for doing nothing and then potentially having to explain why a child has lost his life.”

The officer explained that the Kings were found because a member of staff at the hotel where they were staying recognised the family thanks to the police’s media appeal. A spokesman for the Spanish National Police said that its appeal on Twitter for help had been key.

“This case shows just how effective Twitter can be as an operational tool,” he said.

“Within hours of appealing on Twitter for help to find the boy we received a call from a member of the public who had seen the appeal, which allowed us to locate him and his parents.”

The Kings are currently being held in custody and police have 72 hours to question them before handing them over to a judge, who will begin extradition proceedings.

They are receiving consular assistance from the Foreign Office and have the option of appealing against extradition. British police in Spain are to continue their investigation and question them.

Shead explained that after Ashya’s parents were arrested on suspicion of neglect he was taken to a hospital in Malaga on Saturday night and placed in a high dependency unit.

He added that the boy was moved to a lower dependency unit yesterday.

In a YouTube video blog released on Saturday night, King explained that the family had decided to take Ashya out of hospital to seek a cancer treatment called proton beam which is not available on the NHS.

Sitting on a bed with Ashya in his arms, King said: “We were most disturbed today to find that his face is all over the internet and newspapers and we have been labelled as kidnappers putting his life at risk, neglect.”