If there is anything to learn from this truly bizarre case, it should be “do not overestimate cultural differences.”
Barbora Skrlova, 33, duped Norwegian police, classmates, child care workers and teachers for four months into believing she was a teenage boy named “Adam”. She went to school and all.
The kids in “his” classroom thought the boy was a “little strange”, but since they were brought up to be tolerant of different cultures, they didn’t think much of it.
The masquerade in Norway was just Barbora’s attempt to escape from an investigation in her home country, the Czech Republic where she was a key witness in a child abuse scandal. Wait, it gets worse.
Last year, Skrlova was found at a house in the Czech Republic during a raid by police investigating the child sex abuse case. At that time, she–successfully–posed as a 13-year-old girl called Anicka.The adults involved were said to be members of The Grail Movement, which follows the teachings of a 19th century German mystic.
A couple of days ago, she was deported from Norway back into the Czech Republic where she is being investigated.