When Social Services turned up in El Marchal to take 11 of a man’s 30 children into care… they needed a heavy police escort.

The father, known as El Canuto (The Spliff), first became known some years ago, owing to his 30 offspring and four wives, thanks to an interview on a TV programme. During the programme he boasted that he has never had a job in his life.

Well, the Junta decided that the kids were not living in adequate conditions and sent round the social workers to liberate a dozen or more, but in the end, they settled for eleven, aged between five and twelve.

However, even with a sizeable Guardia Civil presence, the social workers thought it best to grab the children at school; some were in infant school in El Marchal and others in the secondary school in Guadix.

The rural infant school suddenly lost a quarter of its school population as there were only 30 kids in the whole centre; eight of which were El Canuto’s.

But that’s not all because the family represents nearly 10% of the entire village population of 400.

(News: El Marchal, Guadix, Altiplano, Granada, Andalucia)