A ROMANIAN woman is trying to give away an abandoned autistic child — ten years after she adopted her.

A ROMANIAN woman is trying to give away an abandoned autistic child — ten years after she adopted her.

Mihaela Popa adopted the girl aged 18 months in 1999 but claims doctors failed to tell her she was suffering from the developmental disability.

She has now asked a court to overturn the adoption so she can get rid of the teenager.

Child protection spokeswoman Svetlana Mihulet said: "The adoptive mother announced to us she wanted to cancel the adoption. A trial is under way.

"This is a very delicate case. Our only goal is to defend the child's superior interest."

The girl had been abandoned by her parents at birth.

Popa said: "I was given a certificate saying the child was perfectly healthy."

Then six months later she said she discovered the girl was suffering from "severe mental handicap and autism".

After giving birth to her own baby in 2008 Popa put the girl in an institution claiming she could no longer look after her.

She added: "I want to cancel the adoption because I was not told about the child's real condition as I was entitled to."

Under Romanian law adoptions can be cancelled but only if it's in the child's interest.

The case mirrors that of American nurse Torry Ann Hansen, 34, who sent "mentally unstable" seven-year-old Artem Saveliev back to Russia earlier this month because she claimed she had not been told about his behavioural problems.

She had adopted him in September last year and the case prompted Russia to threaten a freeze on all adoptions with the US.