A judge at a family court has ruled it can be reported that a child found in a shopping bag in east London earlier this year has two siblings who were abandoned in similar circumstances.
Judge Carol Atkinson said on Monday at East London Family Court that it can be published that the child, known as Baby Elsa, has a brother and a sister who were discovered alone in 2017 and 2019 respectively. The parents of the three children are yet to be identified, with the Metropolitan Police reiterating their call for anyone with information to come forward.
Baby Elsa was found in freezing temperatures in East Ham on the night of January 18 this year. It is believed she was less than an hour old when she was found by a dog walker, wrapped in a towel in a reusable shopping bag with her umbilical cord still attached.
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She was discovered at the junction of Greenway and High Street South, and was named Elsa by hospital staff who cared for her, in reference to the freezing temperatures in which she was found and the character from the film Frozen.
The Metropolitan Police said at the time it was “highly likely” that Elsa was born after a “concealed pregnancy”. The woman who left Elsa was spotted entering the Greenway from the High Street South entrance at around 8.45pm on the night of January 18, around half an hour before she was found.
Appealing for her mother to come forward in January, Chief Superintendent Simon Crick, lead for policing in Newham, urged anyone with information to urgently get in touch. The BBC reported that a previous court hearing was told it took doctors three hours to record Elsa’s temperature due to the cold, with the Met Office confirming temperatures dropped as low as minus 4C on the night.
A court-appointed guardian asked the court at the earlier hearing to change the name picked by hospital staff, but Judge Atkinson refused the request as it gave the child something to “hang on to”. Barristers for Newham London Borough Council told the court in April that due to ongoing investigation into the identity of her parents, no final decision on her care could be made, with a future hearing expected at a later date.
Baby Roman was also found in freezing temperatures just under five years earlier. Police were called to a park area close to Roman Road and Saxon Road in East Ham at around 10.15pm on January 30 2019.
The force said at the time that the baby was found wrapped in a white towel which was put in a shopping bag and then placed on the ground next to a bench in the small children’s playpark. No attempt had been made to hide her.
She was found by a dog walker, Rima Zvaliauskas, who told the BBC in 2019 that she was “shocked and stressed” by the discovery after hearing a noise coming from a bag. Roman, not her real name, has since been adopted.
Baby Harry was found wrapped in a white blanket and abandoned in a park on September 17 2017. The boy, named Harry by medical staff, was discovered in an area off Balaam Road in Plaistow, east London.
Harry, not his real name, was cared for at a hospital before being discharged and has since been adopted.
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