Blonde girl, 7, removed from Dublin Roma family

[klr]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24626422

Police in the Republic of Ireland have removed a seven-year-old blonde girl from a Roma family in Dublin.

The girl was taken into care after officers called to a house in Tallaght on Monday afternoon.

They saw a number of children, including the seven-year-old girl who has blonde hair and blue eyes.

The parents told police the child was their daughter, but officers were not satisfied with the explanation nor with the documents that were produced.

The Sunday World newspaper reported that a birth certificate was believed to have eventually been produced but officers were not satisfied with it.

The paper reported that although the couple claimed the child was born in the Coombe hospital in Dublin in 2006, the hospital had no record of the child being born on the date quoted by the parents.

The child was removed from the family under powers in the Child Care Act.

It is understood the child is now in the care of the Health Service Executive.

It is believed it will make an application to the courts for a temporary care order.

Police had been told by a member of the public that a six or seven-year-old girl was living with a large Roma family and looked nothing like any of her siblings.

Last week a young blonde girl was found during a raid on a Roma camp in central Greece.

Appeal

A Roma couple have been formally charged with abducting the girl, named Maria, and have been placed in detention pending a trial.

DNA tests showed that she was not related to the couple, who insist they were given her legitimately.

Maria is being cared for by a charity in Athens, which has received more than 8,000 calls after an appeal.

The case has brought a response from two families in the UK with long-missing children.

Ben Needham from Sheffield disappeared aged 21 months while on a family holiday on the Greek island of Kos in 1991. His sister said the discovery of the blonde-haired girl in central Greece gave them "great hope".

A spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann, whose three-year-old daughter Madeleine went missing in Portugal in 2007, said the case also gave them hope that she would one day be found alive.

[Svartalf]

I thought Ireland had no roma folk, only tinkers.

[Warren Dew]

I hope they're going to do the genetic testing soon. Blonde kids can be born to nonblonde parents.

[Svartalf]

It will be done, that's the first thing they will do to make sure they are not making a very costly blunder

[Warren Dew]

Read the article, already done and it shows the girl isn't related to them.

The article talks about genetic testing for the blonde that was removed from a Greek Roma family, not for the blonde that was removed from the Irish Roma family.

[Svartalf]

Yes, that's why I amended my post while you were ninja answering.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I hope they're going to do the genetic testing soon. Blonde kids can be born to nonblonde parents.

It's actually pretty rare though - especially blond hair and blue eyes where the parents have neither. The hospital where the child was supposedly born having no record of the event is a far more reliable clue however.

Who would have thunk it? Gypsies stealing babies? They'll be living in caravans next!

[mistermack]

Some of these cases are probably not abductions, but kids being bought, or informal adoption without involving the state.

But that's almost as bad as abduction. There is much more likelihood of sexual abuse, as the child grows, with the adults knowing that they are not blood relatives.
Look at Woody Allen.
And if I was to be adopted, Romanies would probably be the last people on Earth that I would choose. You have to suspect their motives in the first place.

[Tero]

Boy are they dumb. They should just pick up dark haired kids. Or do the blondes have more resale value?

[mistermack]

Boy are they dumb. They should just pick up dark haired kids. Or do the blondes have more resale value?

I imagine that there is a lot more hair colouring being shoplifted lately, as a result of the publicity.
Can't do much about the eyes though.

I would be on the lookout for dark-haired kiddies, with blonde roots, if I was dealing with Romanies.

[Tyrannical]

Some mother wasn't bluffing, sold off to gypsies.

[cronus]

Changeling's but aren't you all?

[Calilasseia]

Cue Daily Mail hate speech front page article in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

[Warren Dew]

Boy are they dumb. They should just pick up dark haired kids. Or do the blondes have more resale value?

I imagine that there is a lot more hair colouring being shoplifted lately, as a result of the publicity.
Can't do much about the eyes though.

I would be on the lookout for dark-haired kiddies, with blonde roots, if I was dealing with Romanies.

I guess hair dye has been unavailable in Greece for a year or so, since the Greek girl's roots had seriously grown out:

[mistermack]

Boy are they dumb. They should just pick up dark haired kids. Or do the blondes have more resale value?

I imagine that there is a lot more hair colouring being shoplifted lately, as a result of the publicity.
Can't do much about the eyes though.

I would be on the lookout for dark-haired kiddies, with blonde roots, if I was dealing with Romanies.

I guess hair dye has been unavailable in Greece for a year or so, since the Greek girl's roots had seriously grown out:

Edit, actually, I see what you mean, her plaits show signs of having been dyed some time ago.