Now another ‘ abducted’ girl is found
A SECOND blonde- haired, blue- eyed young girl has been found with a gypsy family, giving fresh hope to the parents of Madeleine McCann.
Health officials in Ireland placed the seven- year- old child in care after a tip- off. No arrests have been made and there is no allegation of kidnap.
It is believed police were alerted by neighbours in a suburb of Dublin after worldwide publicity about another blonde, blue- eyed girl named as Maria who was rescued from a gypsy camp in Greece.
The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell said yesterday: “These two cases have given Kate and Gerry renewed hope for their daughter.
“Whenever any child is recovered in circumstances like this it gives Kate and Gerry hope that Madeleine, too, will also be found.
“It shows that members of the public and the authorities are being vigilant – and with any missing child case public awareness is paramount.”
As former GP Mrs McCann, 45, was enjoying a half- term break with her eight- year- old twins Sean and Amelie, Mr Mitchell said: “The McCanns have always maintained that until there is evidence to prove otherwise missing children, and adults, can still be out there waiting to be found.
“And it proves that not all abducted people come to harm.”
The family of Ben Needham, the 21- month- old toddler from Sheffield who went missing on the Greek island of Kos in 1991, has also been given renewed hope by the discovery.
Yesterday it emerged that a couple whose daughter was snatched from their home in Kansas City in the US said they believed Maria may be their child.
Jeremy Irwin, 31, and Deborah Bradley, 30, lost their daughter Lisa in October 2011.
Officials in Dublin yesterday said the girl there was taken into care on Monday when the gypsy family was unable to prove her identity beyond doubt.
It is understood they claim the girl, who they said was born in a Dublin hospital in April 2006, is their daugh-
ter. None of the couple’s other children have been taken into care.
The youngster is said to be physically well and is due to be interviewed by specialist officers.
Police in Dublin have contacted Europol and Interpol about missing children while investigations into the girl’s identity continue.
It is believed officials are considering taking DNA samples from the couple and the child. A birth certificate was deemed to be inconclusive and a passport bore a picture of a baby that could not be matched to the girl.
The man and woman insist the girl was born in the Coombe Hospital in Dublin. But it is understood that administration staff at the hospital say they have no record of a child with the couple’s family name being born at that time.
Travellers’ rights group Pavee Point feared that the cases of the two girls could inflame racism and discrimination against the Roma community.
It warned: “We are concerned about witch- hunts against a vulnerable community and old stereotypes of an entire community being propagated.”