British ‘Shirley Valentine’ faces child kidnap case in Greece 12 years on

EXTRADITION HEARING: Marie Golby, seen here with former lover Giorgos Manentis, is accused of taking a six-month-old baby girl and trying to pass off the child as her own

A “SHIRLEY Valentine” accused of kidnapping a Romanian gypsy’s baby daughter in Greece 12 years ago is facing extradition.

Marie Golby made world headlines in 2006 after taking the six-month-old girl from Athens to the island of Kefalonia, pretending the child was her former partner’s.

She claims charges against her were dropped in 2010 so was shocked to be rearrested and brought before Westminster Magistrates’ Court this month.

The court is set to consider an extradition request from the Greek authorities in spring.

Golby, of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, was arrested under a European Arrest Warrant on charges of procuring and abetting an illicit adoption.

The charge goes back to November 2006 when the 53-year-old took the baby from Sophia Percula, who told police she was in Greece to sell her child through an arranged deal.

The bizarre events began with a Shirley Valentine-style romance (in the 1989 film of that name Pauline Collins has a fling with a Greek bar owner while on holiday) on Kefalonia that began in the summer of 2005 when the then 40-year-old Golby met local Giorgos Manentis at a bar in the resort of Skala.

She became pregnant in February, 2006, but later suffered two miscarriages.

The relationship soured and she returned to the UK, falsely telling Mr Manentis she had given birth to their daughter. He asked to see the baby and Golby said she “would return via Athens where she had left the infant with friends”.

While in the Greek capital, in November 2006, she met Romanian Ms Percula and her baby girl, whom she later took and presented to Mr Manentis as their child.

The following month she was charged with kidnapping a baby with the intention of selling her and released on bail pending trial after denying the charges.

Golby claims the court case was dropped in 2010. She said: “It was a shock when I was arrested again.

“I am not sure why it has just come up all these years later, but it is all being sorted.

“I am not sure if there will have to be another extradition hearing. There was no trial, it was all thrown out in 2010, it was all a big scam.”

Previously prosecutors alleged Golby had arranged to meet Ms Percula in Athens to buy the child.

Ms Percula admitted to police that she had gone to Greece a few weeks before to sell her six-month-old daughter for 14,000 euros (then worth about £9,500) in an illegal adoption scam that had been arranged by her cousin.

In an interview with a national newspaper days after being released on bail, Golby said she was suffering depression from the miscarriages when she met Ms Percula by chance.

She said she found her begging with her baby and gave her 50 euros to buy nappies, claiming the mother then left the child with her.

Two hours later, she had not returned and Golby claimed she took leave of her senses and took the child back to her hotel room.

She said: “She was so lovely.

“It’s at that point that I suppose I said to myself, ‘If she doesn’t want her, I’ll take care of her myself ’.” She then took the child to meet Mr Manentis who immediately realised the baby was too old to be his, so she took the little girl to a hospital. Golby was later arrested. An extradition hearing is scheduled to take place at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in March.

Under her new bail conditions, Golby is on an electronicallymonitored curfew in her home that runs between 11pm and 5am.

She is banned from travelling to any sea port, airport or international railway station or applying for international travel documents.

She must also keep her mobile phone fully charged and switched on 24 hours a day.

The Greek Ministry of Justice this week declined to comment on the reasons for the extradition proceedings.

‘The case was thrown out’ ‘It was a shock to be arrested’