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21st Mar 2018

13-year-old girl found in wardrobe six months after claims she ran away

Her mother and stepfather have been arrested.

Anna O'Rourke

A teenage girl has been rescued from a wardrobe in an apartment in Germany months after going missing.

The 13-year-old disappeared from a care home in the city of Cottbus in Brandenburg in October.

She was found by police in a locked wardrobe in an apartment adjacent to her mother and stepfather’s flat in the nearby village of Gross Schacksdorf, close to the border with Poland, reports The Sun.

13-year-old girl found in wardrobe six months after claims she ran away

The couple were were arrested after the discovery was made on Sunday.

A number of family homes had previously been searched.

Police said that the girl had been sexually abused over a long period of time.

They said her mother and stepfather wrote a fake letter to themselves, purported to be written by girl, that said she had run away from the home because she “couldn’t stand” to be there.

The girl had been placed in the home by social services because of the ‘volatility’ of her parents.

13-year-old girl found in wardrobe six months after claims she ran awayThe city of Cottbus, where the girl went missing.

 

A 52-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man are being investigated for sexual assault, prosecutors have said.

Video equipment was also found relating to the case.

“In the course of the arrests on Sunday, computers, video files and film equipment were seized, which are currently being evaluated by investigators,” said Petra Hertwig of the Cottbus Public Prosecutor’s office.