In a twisted case of feigned identity and child abuse, a woman from the Czech Republic has been found to have fooled officials in Norway into thinking she was a 13-year-old boy, reports EarthTimes.org.
Barbora Skrlova, 33, was detained in Tromsø, Norway on 5 January as she was living under the guise of an allegedly abused runaway Czech boy, Adam. She is now in custody in the Czech Republic. Skrlova had assumed Adam’s identity for four months, going so far as to attend school in Oslo under his name.
In the Czech Republic, Skrlova had previously lived under the guise of a 13-year-old girl named Anicka. Motives are unknown, and those who knew her struggle to understand.
Ingjerd Eriksen, the headmistress of the school ‘Adam’ attended in Tromsø, said: “I don’t understand it at all. He was so convincing.”
The history of Skrlova’s case is even more complicated, tracing back to when she lived as ‘Anicka’ in the house of Klara Maurerova in the Czech Republic and was potentially witness to the abuse of the woman’s son, Ondrej.
“She lived in the Maurerova family and she could help untangle it,” a police spokeswoman, Andrea Prochazkova said. “Many things happened and she was there.”
Skrlova currently faces two years in prison for lying about her identity but police mainly hope she will also be able to shed some light on Ondrej’s abuse case.