The newborn baby found in London also has an abandoned brother and sister BOYS

A newborn baby girl found in an east London park earlier this year has an older brother and sister who were also abandoned in very similar separate earlier incidents, it can now be reported.

The girl was named Elsa by hospital staff after she was found in a shopping bag wrapped in a towel in Newham’s Greenway Park on a January night when temperatures dropped to -5C.

DNA tests revealed she has the same parents as a baby girl, temporarily named Roman after she was found next to a bench in a park off Roman Road, Newham, in January 2019. Like Elsa, she was found by a walker of dogs in freezing temperatures, wrapped. in a towel in a shopping bag.

Elsa and Roman also have an older brother, who was tentatively named Harry after he was found wrapped in a blanket in another east London park in Plaistow in September 2017.

The two older children have since been adopted and given different names.

The parents of all three children have not yet been identified as the Metropolitan Police reiterated an appeal for anyone with information to come forward. In 2017, police released images of Harry as a three-month-old baby.

On Monday, a family court judge ruled that the relationship between the siblings could be reported because of the public interest in the case, due to the rarity of abandoned children.

In the ruling, which came after an appeal by the BBC and PA Media, Carol Atkinson, the most senior judge at the family court in east London, said: “The abandonment of a child in this country is a very, very unusual occurrence.”

She admitted there would be “enormous interest” in the sibling relationship between the three children.

The BBC and PA claimed that reporting the links between the siblings would help police find the parents of the three children.

Baby Elsa was discovered by a dog walker on January 18. She is believed to have been less than an hour old when he found her with the umbilical cord still attached. Hospital staff named her Elsa after a character from the movie Frozen, due to the sub-zero temperatures she was found in.

At the time, the Metropolitan Police said it was highly likely that Elsa was born after a hidden pregnancy.

A woman was seen entering the Greenway from the High Street South entrance at around 8.45pm on the night of January 18, around half an hour before the child was found.

Elsa remains in foster care. In terms of health, she was also described, the court heard.

There were also said to be plans for the siblings to have contact as they grew up. Public reporting of sibling ties has not been supported by public bodies that advise courts on the best interests of children.

The East London Family Court is part of a pilot study which has partially lifted automatic restrictions on reporting family proceedings.

Director Jamie Humm, from the North East command unit, which covers Newham, said: “We understand the significant public interest that will come from lifting the restrictions that allow this information to be reported. It is significant news and our work has been focused on trying to locate the mother and provide her with support.

“We have been working 24/7 in each of these three cases to identify the parents, so far without success.

“We also had to be mindful of the sensitivities that exist now, all children are looked after. Their well-being, including their privacy, is paramount.

“We are continuing to investigate and will consider the next steps in our investigation.”

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that only 12 abandoned children were recorded in England and Wales between 2005 and 2014.

In a note on the data, the ONS said: “Few, if any, details are known about abandoned children and they are not included in birth statistics. However, since 1977 these infants have been included in the register of abandoned children kept at the General Register Office in Southport.”

But a study published by University College London in 2009 found that official figures underestimated the problem and estimated that 16 babies were abandoned each year in the UK.