European countries have reported multiple instances of adult asylum seekers who are gaming the system, as they pose as children to get special benefits. Reports have also surfaced of adults posing as kids who are pedophiles hoping to “bunk” with children in asylum shelters.

According to a recent report, three in every five asylum seekers entering Britain are adults posing as children.

Of the 2,336 “kid” migrants age-checked in the past three years, 1,403 were grown-ups.

The issue of adults posing as children to gain entry into a foreign country isn’t limited to asylum seekers in European nations. It’s also happening regularly on our southern border.

One Indiana couple, who are now divorced, are embroiled in an abandonment case regarding a “child” they adopted from Ukraine and then allegedly abandoned after discovering she was much older than they were told.

In May 2010, Kristine and Michael Barnett, a Christian couple living in Indiana, traveled to Florida where they believed they would be adopting an 9-year-old girl from Ukraine. It didn’t take long for the couple to discover the young girl who had been abandoned by her previous adoptive parents for undisclosed reasons, wasn’t exactly the child the Barnett’s thought they were adopting.

Kristine Barnett is an author, public speaker, and longtime advocate for education for autistic children.

She first graced national media coverage when her pre-teen son, Jake, enrolled as an undergraduate at Purdue University. Barnett has traveled around the country, talking about her strategies for homeschooling her brilliant son, who has autism.

In a frank and tearful interview with the DailyMail, Kristine Barnett insisted she treated the new addition to her family as if she were her biological child.

From the Daily Mail – She had no hesitation in accepting Natalia despite learning she had a bone growth disorder named spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasia, which causes short stature, skeletal abnormalities and problems with vision.

Their nightmare started with a family trip to the beach while visiting Disneyworld, where they observed some disturbing details about the young girl they had just adopted.

‘The boys rushed into the water and Natalia wanted to be carried into the ocean. Michael and myself were physically exhausted so we asked her to wait just a few minutes,’ she said.

‘With that she just got up and ran into the ocean. I remember looking at Mike and thinking, what’s going on? She couldn’t walk a second ago and now she just got up and ran.’

Barnett grew more alarmed when she saw the little girl naked for the first time.

‘I was giving her a bath and I noticed that she had full pubic hair. I was so shocked. I had just been told she was a six year old and it was very apparent she wasn’t,’ she added.

There were further clues to an apparent deception: Natalia shunned dolls and toys, sought the company of teenage girls and appeared to use sophisticated vocabulary way beyond someone her age.

She didn’t have any trace of a foreign accent and when the family asked a Ukrainian friend to speak in their native language Natalia couldn’t understand or describe her homeland.

It wasn’t long before their experiences with their adopted daughter turned into a full-blown nightmare:

‘She was standing over people in the middle of the night. You couldn’t go to sleep. We had to hide all the sharp objects.

‘I saw her putting chemicals, bleach, Windex something like that, in my coffee and I asked her, what are you doing? She said, “I am trying to poison you.”

‘The media is painting me to be a child abuser but there is no child here,’ said Barnett.

‘Natalia was a woman. She had periods. She had adult teeth. She never grew a single inch, which would happen even with a child with dwarfism.

‘The doctors all confirmed she was suffering a severe psychological illness only diagnosed in adults.

‘She was jumping out of moving cars. She was smearing blood on mirrors. She was doing things you could never imagine a little child doing.’

Barnett says she soon began finding bloody clothing in the trash suggesting Natalia was having her period and trying to conceal the evidence.

In 2012, Marion County Superior Court in Indianapolis, Indiana determined Natalia was born in 1989, rather than agreeing with her Ukrainian birth certificate which claimed she was born on September 4, 2003.

It has all the elements of a horror movie: an unsuspecting Christian couple adopts an adorable little girl only to discover she is an adult sociopath masquerading as a child.

If the premise sounds familiar that’s because it’s virtually the exact plot of 2009 big screen chiller ‘Orphan’, where a pig-tailed ‘youngster’ tries to murder her family when it’s revealed she is 33.

Natalia was treated by mental health specialists who determined she was an adult and pressed for the courts to have her birth certificate changed.

Kristine Barnett, 45, and her ex-husband Michael Barnett, 43, are alleged to have dumped Ukrainian-born Natalia Grace at an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana in 2013 before moving to Canada one month later and breaking off contact.

Police say the girl was left to fend for herself for three years despite having a rare form of dwarfism that means she is 3ft tall and has problems walking.

But in an exclusive interview with Daily Mail TV at an undisclosed location, Kristine insists there’s a major flaw in their case: Natalia was not a nine-year-old – as charging documents claim – she was actually 22.

The Barnetts moved to Canada and left Natalia in an apartment in Lafayette.

Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Department alleges that Natalia was a child when they ‘abandoned her in 2013.

Arrest warrants were issued for Kristine and Michael Barnett.

Michael Barnett surrendered to authorities on September 18 and was released on $5,000 bail. A hearing has been set for September 2.

Kristine Barnett surrendered to authorities on Thursday, September 19 and was released after posting a $5,500 bond.

‘I have been cooperative the whole time. I have been truthful with people the whole time,’ said Kristine, choking back tears.

‘I am being charged by the state of Indiana for crimes against a child when the state of Indiana has determined multiple times that Natalia was an adult,’ added Kristine, who asked for her location to remain confidential over threats her family has received.

Go to the Daily Mail for the entire story.

Stephanie Santiago, a friend of the Barnett family, posted a fundraiser for Kristine Barnett on her Facebook post, she wrote:

Just received word : DONATION LINK BELOW

URGENT: We are seeking to immediately raise funds for a retainer fee in order to obtain a lawyer for Kristine Barnett. She currently has a warrant out for her arrest and is in desperate need of a lawyer in order to fight these allegations. Kristine has tirelessly advocated for the rights of all children. She has spent her life specifically focused on ensuring safety, education, acceptance, and recognition of the talents of individuals with autism spectrum. In early 2019 she began to travel the country to meet with families and communities where abuse of ASD children was occurring. She began to advocate and raise awareness of the abuse, restraint, and seclusion of these children. Kristine spoke out in person and spread her message via My Voice for Their Voice. In the spring, she began receiving threats, warning her to stop. As of Thursday, The State of Indiana as well as the media have claimed that Kristine adopted a child, abandoned the child, and fled the country. This as well as news of her arrest, before a warrant was served have been spreading through out the world via news. Long before allegations arose Kristine had explained what occurred. She and her (now former) husband had been scammed by an adoption agency. An individual who was brought here by the agency in 2008 was adopted to the Barnett family in 2010, after having spent time with other families. She had dwarfism and severe mental health issues, including psychosis. She posed as an 8 yr old child at the time. After drs. evaluations it was determined that the individual was actually an adult. Kristine has submitted the drs report to the media. As well as at the time, the Barnetts had submitted this information to the state. At the time the state accepted the documents as valid. Kristine even reports that the state conducted thorough investigations and also came to the same conclusion. Through appeal to the courts, her age was legally changed to that of an adult. The Barnetts helped the individual while she was in and out of mental health institutions. After sometime it was decided that she was able to live independently, as long as she remained under a drs supervision. The Barnetts helped her obtain housing, as they could no longer have her in the home. They had endured physical attack and feared for their safety. They did not flee the country, to escape any legal issues or wrongdoing, as the media has alleged. Kristine and her family moved to Canada after Jacob, the oldest son, a young physics prodigy, was offered a fellowship at a prestigious university there. Kristine still has two boys at home, who need their mom. So many special needs families greatly rely on her experience and knowledge in implementing the Spark. Without proper legal counsel she is in danger of being arrested and imprisoned for these false allegations. Please consider donating right away.