A HORRIFIED Poole couple woke up in a Spanish hotel room to find a stranger looking into their baby's cot.

Rachel and Lloyd Bartlett from Canford Heath were on their first holiday with five-month-old baby Jake in Spain last week.

On the first night of their trip, they woke up at 2.30am to see a strange woman in her night clothes peering into Jake's cot at the end of their bed.

Mrs Bartlett, 22, said: "The woman was saying Don't worry, it's mummy'. I just said, You are not Jake's mum, I am'. The woman then walked out.

"I had this vision of her picking up Jake and taking him with her but luckily she just left.

"It turned out she had been let into our room by a hotel porter."

Mrs Bartlett said she immediately went downstairs and reported this to the Tossa Beach Hotel receptionist. She said: "They just did not seem interested and were not able to find the porter that had let the woman in.

"We did think about calling the police but because it was so dark in the room I am not sure I would be able to pick the woman out again so I did not think there was much point."

The couple demanded to change rooms and spent the rest of their five-day break barricading the door of their room with a push-chair while they slept because the locks did not work properly.

Mrs Bartlett said that she and her husband, Lloyd, 27, who is a teacher, decided not to tell the family what had happened until they got back to the UK.

She said we did write to the travel agent Sun 4 U and the company said it would reply in 28 days.

She said: "After all the publicity over Madeline McCann, this just makes you realise how easily it could happen."

Melanie Pugh from Sun 4 U said: "We are obviously concerned that our client's hotel room was entered during the night. We were informed of the incident on Monday, October 22, and immediately instigated an investigation into the matter.

"We would assure you that we do take such matters very seriously indeed and as soon as we are in receipt of a report from the hotel, we will be responding to Mr and Mrs Bartlett accordingly."