Romania Child abuse cases shock Moldavia

June 12, 2008

Comment: The daily Romanian newspaper ‘Nine O’Clock’ reports on its website three recents discoveries of incest cases and male relatives children abuses, happening in the region of Moldavia lately. According to ‘Nine O’clock’, these stories could be easily linked to last month’s deplorable highlights of Austrian Joseph Fritzl, who kept his daughter in hostage and sexually abused her for 24 years.

In the first case, a man raped his eleven-years-old daughter for years while his wife was working in Italy. The second story, is slightly the same as the first one but in this case the man has abused his two children for over 4 years and used to hit them and chase them away from home. Finally, the third case involves a eleven year-old girl who remained pregnant after being raped by her 19-year-old uncle.

In two cases, sexual abuses occured when the mother was away, working in Italy. These facts could be put in relation with the very high migration factor affecting Romania where thousands of parents are working abroad, leaving behind a great number of children under the care of only one parent or grand parents.

Nonetheless, in every cases, the local and national child protection authorities sheltered and took care of the victims during the launching of the investigation.

Original text in English here