How did Greece's 'blond angel' end up in a Roma camp?

A girl described as "the blond angel" found living with a Roma couple now charged with abducting her is older than police initially thought, a Greek charity says.

The "Smile of the Child" charity, which is caring for the child known as "Maria" until her biological parents are found, says she is aged around five or six. It had initially set her age at around four.

The charity director said Monday the revision follows dental and other examinations done at a hospital where the girl is undergoing health checks.

A poster of the girl known as Maria who was found living with a couple in a Roma camp in central Greece appears in the suburban Athens office of the "Smile of the Child" charity, which is taking care of the child as police search for her biological parents. (John Kolesidis/Reuters)

The charity says it received more than 8,000 phone calls and thousands of emails in response to a call for help identifying the blond, blue-eyed girl. They came from people in the U.S., Scandinavia, Australia, South Africa and other places.

"The case has touched a chord with lots of people from many countries," Panayiotis Pardalis, a charity spokesman, told The Associated Press on Monday. "We've received photos of missing children and potentially connected cases which we are forwarding to the police, but there are also — and that's the majority — people conveying their support and concern."

Greek police have also sought assistance from Interpol, the international police agency, which has 38 girls younger than six on its missing persons database. None of them, however, matched the girl's description. The agency only receives cases when member governments seek its help.

The Greek appeal follows the discovery last week of the girl in a Roma settlement near Farsala in central Greece during a police raid looking for drugs, firearms and fugitives. The blond child was strikingly unlike the couple she lived with, which triggered the curiosity of prosecutor Christina Fasoula, who had accompanied the police.

A DNA test proved that "Maria," as the child was called, was not related to the Roma couple she was living with. Police say the couple initially claimed her as their own.

A 39-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman appeared Monday before an investigating judge in Larissa, near Farsala, to face criminal charges of child abduction, which carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

Both denied the charges last week, claiming instead to have adopted the child while she was just days old. A defence lawyer said they were motivated by charity, after being approached by an intermediary for a destitute foreign mother who reportedly could not afford to raise the child.

Pair charged

The suspects have also been charged with illegally obtaining official documents such as birth records.

Police allege the woman claimed to have given birth to six children in less than 10 months, while 10 of the 14 children the couple had registered as their own are unaccounted for.

Roma children pose for photos at a camp near Farsala, about 280 km north of Athens, Greece, on Sunday. Greek authorities requested international assistance Friday to identify the four-year-old girl found living in the camp with a couple who were arrested and charged with abducting her from her birth parents. (Nikolas Giakoumidis/AP Photo)

It is unclear whether these all exist, or are fake declarations of parenthood to milk the Greek welfare system. Police say the two suspects received about 2,500 euros ($3,420) a month in subsidies from three different cities where they had registered the children.

The man also faces separate charges, together with other people from the settlement, for allegedly possessing an illegal firearm and drug-related offences.

In Farsala, Greece, otherwise happy residents living in prefabricated homes in a Roma camp have begun to worry about resentment.

They are at the centre of the child abduction case, with a couple from their community accused of abducting the blonde, blue-eyed girl.

Hopes there is no backlash

The Roma, a poor people in a country devastated by an economic crisis, try to make a living in the camp on the outskirts of the central town of Farsala by selling fruit, carpets, blankets, baskets and shoes at local markets. They say they are already considered by some to be social outcasts, thieves and beggars.

Now, they fear they will be stigmatized as child traffickers. The president of the local Roma community, Babis Dimitriou, hopes there is no backlash against the 2,000 Roma living in the community.

The case "doesn't reflect on all of us," he told The Associated Press on Sunday.

DNA tests proved the couple raising the girl aren't her biological parents.

People in the community are wary of media attention and resent what they say is neglect by the state. The only thing authorities have provided, they say, is the prefab houses that replaced the tents they were living in eight years ago.

What the local Roma seem keen to convey is that their community is not involved in either child abductions or trafficking.

Bulgarians, not Greeks

Still, regional police chief Lt.-Gen. Vassilis Halatsis said authorities have found "dozens" of child trafficking cases involving Bulgarian Roma in Greece.

"We know these cases exist, but they involve Bulgarians, not Greeks like us. There are no transactions involving children here," Dimitriou insists, adding that the 40-year-old woman, who had registered Maria as her own child, "cared for her even better than for her own children."

Another resident of the community, who lives with the Roma but is not one of them, takes their side.

"There is no buying and selling of children here … the other Roma are not to blame," 42-year-old Christos Lioupis said. "These are family people. After this event, the police have been searching everyone. Isn't this racist?"

But Halatsis said people take advantage of a flawed birth registration system to declare multiple children to receive state handouts.

Unusual case

The couple accused of abducting the girl had used multiple identities to register 14 children in three different cities, of whom only four have been identified, Halatsis said. An examination of the birth dates of the children shows that the woman, at one point, was giving birth every four months, he said. Overall, the couple received 2,500 euros per month in state assistance.

"We are dealing with a very unusual case," Halatsis said. "Usually, parents report a child's disappearance, and we look for the children. In this case, we have the child and we are looking for its (her) parents.

"So far, we have had calls from France, Poland, even the United States. We are looking at each case, to see if the ages match, and if there are similar features. DNA testing will follow."

He added: "At this point, we can't say there is a child trafficking network involved, but we are looking at this possibility," the police chief said. He said there have been documented cases of Greek childless couples buying children of Bulgarian Roma for up to 15,000 euros.

Making public the names of the couple that harboured Maria would give a boost to the search for her parents, Halatsis said, but that is up to the judicial authorities.