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Police are searching for the parents of three babies who were wrapped in shopping bags and blankets, then abandoned in east London over the past seven years.
A court revealed on Monday that baby Elsa, who was found left in a park in cold weather in January, is a sibling of two other newborns, PA Media reported.
Elsa's sister and brother, who were named in local media by the pseudonyms Roman and Harry, were discarded nearby in 2017 and 2019.
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All three infants were found alive and were quickly cared for, with the oldest two since being adopted, according to PA Media.
Yet Monday's court ruling sheds light on a chilling pattern in the London borough of Newham.
It began in September 2017, when Harry was found wrapped in a blanket in a small park. Police appealed for the mother to come forward, but she never did.
A year and a half later, Roman was found in another park nearby, wrapped in a blanket and a shopping bag.
"The child had a frosty forehead … (it was) snowing shortly afterwards," the man who discovered her and alerted police told the BBC in 2019.
And in January this year, Elsa was found a very short walk away from the same location. She was discovered, wrapped in towels, by a dog walker just after 9pm, police said at the time.
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"Thinking fast, that person kept the baby girl warm until London Ambulance Service paramedics arrived and checked her over before taking her to hospital," Chief Superintendent Simon Crick said in a statement.
"I am grateful to the members of the public who stayed at the scene to speak with officers and medics – your actions contributed to saving the baby's life."
Like her sister Roman, Elsa was left in very cold January temperatures. The Metropolitan Police said at the time it was "highly likely" that Elsa was born after a "concealed pregnancy", according to PA Media.
A week after Elsa was found, police appealed for help to identify "a woman seen wearing a large dark coat with a light coloured scarf or hood around her neck", and a rucksack on her back, shortly before the discovery of the baby.
"It is still believed she could hold important information about how Elsa came to be where she was found," police said.
DNA testing revealed that the three babies are related.
Police knew that the three children, who are Black, were siblings, but a judge decided on Monday that reporting restrictions – which limit what can be said about children who are victims of crimes – could be lifted, allowing the media to publish details.
"The abandonment of a baby in this country is a very, very unusual event and there are years where there are no children abandoned, and because of that it is the story of the abandoning of a child that is of public interest," PA Media quoted the judge as saying.
All three babies names have since been changed.
