The mother and grandparents of an 8-year-old German girl are accused of locking her away in a room for nearly her entire life, stunting her development so much that she now struggles to walk up stairs or “overcome uneven ground,” local authorities say.
The child, referred to only as “Maria” by German media, was reportedly freed on Sept. 23 after being cut off from society for seven years.
“The girl has never seen the outside world,” senior prosecutor Patrick Baron Von Grotthuss told the German news agency DPA.
