Baby Harry was found abandoned in a park in Plaistow, east London. Photo / Metropolitan Police
Baby Harry was found abandoned in a park in Plaistow, east London. Photo / Metropolitan Police
Three newborn babies who were abandoned in east London over the past seven years all share the same parents, DNA tests have revealed.
A judge ruled on Monday that media were allowed to report the link between the three children, who were left in parks in Plaistow and Newham.
Their mother and father have not yet been identified, with the Metropolitan Police reiterating their call for anyone with information to come forward.
It comes after a baby girl was found in a shopping bag by a dog walker in Newham on a freezing night in January.
The child, called Baby Elsa — after the character from Disney’s Frozen — by hospital staff, was believed to be only an hour old when she was found, and still had her umbilical cord attached. She was not injured in any way.
Police are still looking for a woman who was spotted in the area wearing a dark coat with a light-coloured scarf or hood around her neck and rucksack on her back, shortly before Elsa was found.
It is thought the woman could hold important information about how the child came to be abandoned.
DNA tests have since shown the girl is the biological sibling of Harry, who was found abandoned in a park in Plaistow in 2017, and Roman, who was discovered in a park in Newham in 2019.
Roman was discovered in a park in Newham in 2019. Photo / Metropolitan Police
On Monday, Judge Carol Atkinson amended restrictions at the East London Family Court to permit the familial link between the three children to be reported, after an appeal by news agency PA and the BBC.
She said it was needed for the “openness of justice” because there is “enormous interest” in identifying the children’s parents.
The oldest child, known as Harry, was abandoned in a park close to Balaam St in Plaistow, east London, on September 17, 2017.
He was found wrapped in a white blanket at 8.20am before being taken to hospital, triggering a police appeal for his mother to come forward.
Officers said at the time they were concerned for his mother’s welfare and appealed for her to come forward.
His sister, Baby Roman, was found in similar circumstances in a play area off Roman Rd, Newham, about 10.15pm on January 31, 2019, amid freezing temperatures and heavy snow.
She was wrapped in a white towel inside a shopping bag and then placed on the ground next to a bench in the small children’s playground. No attempt had been made to hide her.
Dog walker Rima Zvaliauskas, who found the child, told the BBC in 2019 she was “shocked and stressed” by the discovery after hearing a noise coming from a bag.
She told Sun Online: “At first I thought it was an animal.”
Her son, Ovidijus, who was with her at the time, said: “She looked a bit purple. She [was] very cold to the touch. Her forehead and ears looked like they were a bit frosty.
“We feel great that we helped save the baby’s life. I’m glad we were there or the baby might not have survived too much longer.”
Harry and Roman — not their real names — have since been adopted.
Baby Elsa was found in a reusable shopping bag at the junction of Greenway and High St South in East Ham at 9.13pm on January 18, as temperatures plunged to -4C. Police said at the time it was “highly likely” she was born after a “concealed pregnancy”.
The woman who left her was spotted entering the Greenway from the High St South entrance about 8.45pm, around half an hour before she was discovered.
Tania Iurac, a restaurant manager, said she saw a “commotion” on her walk home from work, adding the baby was left in a “really visible area”.
Iruac, 25, told MailOnline at the time: “I saw a commotion by Greenway park. We saw a white towel on the floor surrounded by six to seven police officers.
“I think the mother wanted the baby to be found. The towel was in a really visible area next to the main road. It was absolutely freezing last night.”
A court-appointed guardian asked the court at a previous hearing to change Elsa’s name, but Judge Atkinson refused the request because it gave the child something to “hang on to”.
Barristers for Newham London Borough Council told the court in April that due to the ongoing investigation into the identity of her parents, no final decision on her care could be made, with a hearing expected at a later date.
While journalists can usually attend family court proceedings, reporting restrictions limit what can be published to protect the anonymity of those involved.
But under a pilot scheme to increase transparency in the family court system that was brought in last year, journalists and legal bloggers are given access to three family courts — Leeds, Cardiff and Carlisle — to report on cases more freely.
This was expanded this year to permit reporting on cases at 16 courts throughout England and Wales.
Following an application made by PA and the BBC, Judge Atkinson varied the Transparency Order in Elsa’s case to allow reporting of the fact she has two siblings, and other details.
Only certain other details of the three children may be reported.
