An eight-year-old child has spent almost all of her life locked up, according to the public prosecutor’s office in Siegen, Germany, which has opened an investigation.
The child was reportedly kept in her grandparents’ house, and investigators are focusing on the grandparents and the victim’s mother, the prosecutor’s office said at the weekend.
The child was never allowed to go to school, play with other children or leave her grandparents’ home in the small town of Attendorn, North Rhine-Westphalia.
The mother had informed social services that she had moved to Italy. The father was not living with the family. When the Italian authorities informed their German counterparts that the mother and daughter were not living there, the child welfare authorities decided to visit the grandparents’ house, where they found the victim. She showed no signs of physical abuse or malnutrition.
The mother and grandparents, who are suspected of kidnapping, used their right to remain silent and did not justify why the child had been deprived of social contact.
When interviewed, neighbours said they were unaware that the girl and her mother were living in the house.
The child has now been placed in a foster home, and a legal guardian will be appointed by the court.
