A WOMAN has been arrested on a child abduction charge as she allegedly tried to board a plane with a young boy.

Claudia Yokana Fontes Marques, 24, of Audley Range, Blackburn, was stopped by police at Manchester Airport as she allegedly prepared to get on a flight to Amsterdam with a four-year-old.

She was charged with attempting to take a child out of the UK without appropriate consent and attempting to pervert the course of justice by removing a witness in criminal proceedings from the country.

She has since appeared before Blackburn magistrates where she was sent in custody to Preston Crown Court, where she already faces a child cruelty charge along with a Blackburn man.

Yasser Ghalib, 26, of Shearwood Road, Blackburn, has been charged with neglect and section 20 wounding of a child.

He is alleged to have punched and kneed a young boy in the stomach and forced a lit cigarette on to his tongue.

He failed to appear at Preston Crown Court yesterday and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Marques, originally from Portugal, was returned to Blackburn as part of a joint operation by Greater Manchester Police and Lancashire Police.

Det Con Jane Lawrenson, of Accrington's Public Protection Unit, said: "Marques was arrested in the departure lounge at Manchester Airport. The boy is in foster care."

A plea and case management hearing has been listed to take place at Preston Crown Court on March 29.