--- title: British Parents Won't Be Charged for Taking Son from Cancer Ward description: British prosecutors will not press charges against a couple for taking their son from the cancer ward of a hospital without warning canonical: https://time.com/3257306/brett-naghmeh-king-ashya-tumor-cancer-spain/ author: Dan Kedmey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-02T17:15:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:57:59.727Z article:section: Health og:title: British Parents Won't Be Charged for Taking Son from Cancer Ward og:description: British prosecutors will not press charges against a couple for taking their son from the cancer ward of a hospital without warning og:url: https://time.com/3257306/brett-naghmeh-king-ashya-tumor-cancer-spain/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94d4124c130c0e68/6986a1adcd804d4497ccc957/454470870.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Ashya King's Parents Extradition Hearing In Madrid og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: British Parents Won't Be Charged for Taking Son from Cancer Ward twitter:description: British prosecutors will not press charges against a couple for taking their son from the cancer ward of a hospital without warning twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94d4124c130c0e68/6986a1adcd804d4497ccc957/454470870.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # British Parents Who Pulled Son from Cancer Ward Won't Be Charged > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Sep 2, 2014 5:15 PM UTC  A policeman stands guard as a police van allegedly holding Brett and Naghemeh King, parents of five years old Ashya King arrives at the National Court on Sept. 1, 2014 in Madrid. A policeman stands guard as a police van allegedly holding Brett and Naghemeh King, parents of five years old Ashya King arrives at the National Court on Sept. 1, 2014 in Madrid. Pablo Blazquez Dominguez—Getty Images  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Sep 2, 2014 5:15 PM UTC British prosecutors will not press charges against a couple for taking their 5-year-old son from the cancer ward of a hospital without warning and flying to Spain to seek alternative treatment for his brain tumor. The couple was arrested in Malaga, Spain over the weekend, where they were arranging to sell a home to fund an alternative treatment that they said could only be found outside the U.K., CNN [reports](http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/02/world/europe/brain-cancer-boy/index.html). The withdrawal of their son from hospital sparked an international manhunt. Brett and Naghmeh King said they felt they had no choice but to remove their son from treatment at University Hospital in the southern city of Southampton, after doctors there refused to agree to proton beam treatment that the parents argued was less invasive than chemotherapy. Their son, Ashya, suffers from a malignant brain tumor called medulloblastoma. “We pleaded with them for proton beam treatment,” said Brett King in a video plea posted to YouTube: The Kings have refused to return to Britain and have made a public plea to police to call off their search. British Prime Minister David Cameron announced his support for the couple on his Twitter account Tuesday: > [](https://twitter.com/David%5FCameron/status/506819644133769216) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3257306/brett-naghmeh-king-ashya-tumor-cancer-spain/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3257306/brett-naghmeh-king-ashya-tumor-cancer-spain/"},"headline":"British Parents Who Pulled Son from Cancer Ward Won't Be Charged","datePublished":"2014-09-02T17:15:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:57:59.727Z","description":"Police arrested Brett and Naghmeh King in Spain, where they had sought an alternative treatment for their 5-year-old son's brain tumor","url":"https://time.com/3257306/brett-naghmeh-king-ashya-tumor-cancer-spain/","keywords":["Cancer","Spain","United Kingdom"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94d4124c130c0e68/6986a1adcd804d4497ccc957/454470870.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94d4124c130c0e68/6986a1adcd804d4497ccc957/454470870.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ashya King's Parents Extradition Hearing In Madrid","caption":"Ashya King's Parents Extradition Hearing In Madrid","creditText":"Pablo Blazquez Dominguez—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/cancer/","name":"Cancer"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3257306/brett-naghmeh-king-ashya-tumor-cancer-spain/","name":"British Parents Who Pulled Son from Cancer Ward Won't Be Charged"}}]}] ```