The Story of Barbora Skrlova: The Woman Who Pretended to Be a Child

Barbora Skrlova is a Czech woman who became notorious for her involvement in a child abuse case and her ability to deceive people into believing she was a child herself. Skrlova suffered from a rare condition called hypopituitarism, which affected her growth and appearance, making her look much younger than her actual age. She used this to her advantage to escape justice and manipulate others, posing as different children in different countries.

The Child Abuse Case in the Czech Republic

The story of Barbora Skrlova began in 2007 when Czech police raided a house in Brno, where they found an eight-year-old boy named Ondrej Mauerova locked and chained in a cellar. Ondrej was the son of Klara Mauerova, a 31-year-old woman who had separated from her husband due to her mental illness. Klara had two sons, Ondrej and Jakub, who were both subjected to horrific abuse by their mother and her sister Katerina Mauerova, who lived with them.

The police also found two adult women and a 13-year-old girl in the house. The girl claimed to be Anicka, an orphan who had been adopted by the Mauerovas. However, she was actually Barbora Skrlova, a 33-year-old woman who had befriended Klara while studying pedagogy at college. Skrlova had introduced herself as Anicka, saying she had nowhere to stay, and moved in with the Mauerovas.

Skrlova was the mastermind behind the abuse of the boys, as she manipulated and controlled Klara and Katerina, who were both members of a cult called the Grail Movement. Skrlova convinced them that the boys were possessed by evil spirits and needed to be punished and exorcised. She also pretended that the boys were breaking things and misbehaving, and made them write letters confessing their sins.

She then persuaded the sisters to torture the boys in various ways, such as burning them with cigarettes, beating them with belts, starving them, forcing them to cut themselves, and even partially skinning Ondrej alive.

The abuse was also recorded by webcams and broadcasted to other members of the cult, who watched and gave instructions. The police discovered the abuse after one of the webcams was accidentally connected to a neighbor's computer, who alerted the authorities.

The Escape to Norway

When the police arrested Klara and Katerina Mauerova, Skrlova managed to escape by pretending to be a child. She fled to Norway, where she assumed the identity of Adam Fiser, a 13-year-old boy of Czech parents who had gone missing.

It is believed that Skrlova had contacted Adam's parents through the internet and convinced them to help her pose as their son. Skrlova shaved her head, bound her breasts, and wore boyish clothes to disguise herself as Adam.

She enrolled in a school in Oslo, where she fooled teachers, classmates, and social workers into believing she was a teenage boy. She also lived in a children's home for some time, where she continued her deception. However, she soon ran away from the home and disappeared again.

The police launched a nationwide search for the missing boy, unaware that he was actually a grown woman on the run from justice. They eventually tracked down Skrlova in Tromsoe, an Arctic city in Norway, where they arrested her and revealed her true identity.

The Trial and Sentence

Skrlova was extradited back to the Czech Republic, where she faced trial for her involvement in the child abuse case. She pleaded not guilty, claiming that she was also a victim of the cult and that she had dissociative identity disorder (DID), which made her believe she was different people at different times.

However, the court rejected her defense and found her guilty of orchestrating the abuse of Ondrej and Jakub Mauerova. She was sentenced to five years in prison in 2008. Klara Mauerova was sentenced to nine years in prison, while Katerina Mauerova was sentenced to ten years in prison.

References:

(1) Barbora Skrlova: 'Teenage boy' in Norway who turned out to be adult.

(2) Orphan True Story & Real Life Crime Explained - Screen Rant..

(3) Barbora Skrlova now: The conwoman’s life after prison. .