A 38-year-old Brazilian woman has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after she allegedly deceived a couple into believing she was a 12-year-old girl and convinced them to take her into their home.
Amanda Maria Souza de Oliveira reportedly posed as a child while claiming to have a disability and the mental age of a young girl. She allegedly drank milk from baby bottles and used pacifiers to convince the couple of her supposed age.
The unusual case began when Oliveira attended services at an evangelical church in Joinville, southern Brazil, where she initially introduced herself as an 18-year-old woman named Gabriele who was looking for work.
A pastor reportedly introduced her to a couple who sympathised with her situation and allowed her to stay with them temporarily.
According to reports, Oliveira later changed her story and told the couple that she was actually 12 years old. She allegedly claimed that she had fled an abusive home in the northern state of Pará and that she appeared much older because her father had forced her to take hormonal supplements when she was younger.
The couple reportedly believed the story and cared for her as a child. Oliveira also allegedly persuaded them to pay for weight-loss medication.
Her deception was eventually uncovered after a relative of the couple became suspicious about her claimed age and began investigating her background.
The relative reportedly found online reports from 2023 about a woman named Amanda who had allegedly carried out a similar deception in Rio de Janeiro. The woman turned out to be Oliveira.
When police arrived at the couple’s home and entered her bedroom, Oliveira reportedly abandoned the act and began speaking to officers in her normal adult voice.
She later admitted to investigators that she had deceived people and claimed she had used the same tactic for at least 15 years in different parts of Brazil.
“It is clear that I deceived people; I lied. But I did not intend to scam anyone,” she reportedly told police.
Court records showed that Oliveira had allegedly posed as a child in nine Brazilian states, including Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Ceará, Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Norte and Mato Grosso do Sul.
A judge in Santa Catarina rejected her defence that she was mentally ill and therefore not criminally responsible, ruling that she had acted deliberately and consciously.
Oliveira’s lawyers have said they will appeal the sentence. They argued that her behaviour was a “survival strategy” adopted by a deeply troubled woman who was seeking the love and affection she had lacked during childhood.
Prosecutors, however, maintained that a prison sentence was justified because of the financial and psychological harm allegedly caused to the family.