A newborn baby girl found in a park in east London earlier this year has an older brother and sister also abandoned in very similar separate earlier incidents, it can now be reported.
The girl was named Elsa by hospital staff after she was found in a shopping bag wrapped in a towel in Greenway park in Newham on a night last January when temperatures dropped to -5C.
DNA tests revealed she has the same parents as a girl, temporarily named Roman, after being found next to a bench in a park near Roman Road, Newham in January 2019. Like Elsa, she was found by a dog walker in freezing temperatures wrapped in a towel inside a shopping bag.
Elsa and Roman also have an older brother, who was provisionally named Harry, after he was found wrapped in a blanket in another east London park in Plaistow in September 2017.
The two older children have since been adopted and given different names.
The parents of all three children have yet to be identified, as the Metropolitan police reiterated a call for anyone with information to come forward.
On Monday, a judge in a family court ruled that the relationship between the siblings could be reported because of the public interest of the case, due to the rarity of babies being abandoned.
In the ruling, which came after an appeal by the BBC and PA Media, Carol Atkinson, the most senior judge at east London family court, said: “Abandonment of a baby in this country is a very, very unusual event.”
She acknowledged there would be “enormous interest” in the sibling relationship between the three children.
The BBC and PA argued that reporting the sibling links would help the police find the parents of the three children.
Baby Elsa was discovered by a dog walker on 18 January. It is believed she was less than an hour old when she found with her umbilical cord still attached. Hospital staff gave the name Elsa in reference to a character in the film Frozen, due to the sub-zero temperatures in which she was found.
At the time the Metropolitan police said it was highly likely that Elsa was born after a concealed pregnancy.
A woman was spotted entering the Greenway from the High Street South entrance at about 8.45pm on the night of 18 January, around half an hour before the baby was found.
Elsa remains in foster care. In terms of health, she was described as well, the court heard.
It was also told there were plans for the siblings to have contact as they grew up. The public reporting of the sibling link was not support by the public bodies who advise courts about the children’s best interests.
East London family court is part of a pilot study that has partially lifted automatic restrictions on the reporting of family proceedings.
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2024-06-04 09:20:00Z
CBMicGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWd1YXJkaWFuLmNvbS91ay1uZXdzL2FydGljbGUvMjAyNC9qdW4vMDQvYWJhbmRvbmVkLW5ld2Jvcm4tYmFieS1lbHNhLW5ld2hhbS1sb25kb24tYnJvdGhlci1zaXN0ZXLSAXBodHRwczovL2FtcC50aGVndWFyZGlhbi5jb20vdWstbmV3cy9hcnRpY2xlLzIwMjQvanVuLzA0L2FiYW5kb25lZC1uZXdib3JuLWJhYnktZWxzYS1uZXdoYW0tbG9uZG9uLWJyb3RoZXItc2lzdGVy
