Gypsy teenage daughter who defied marriage tradition 'kidnapped by rival family'

Roman girl kidnapped

A Romanian gypsy who defied tradition by refusing to force his children to marry at a young age has accused another Roma family of kidnapping his daughter.

Fellow gypsies are horrified that dad-of-five Mihai Bancuta, 48, has allowed his oldest son to remain unmarried at the age of 21 and his daughter unmarried at 16.

He said: "I know it is a Roma tradition that says children have to marry young – sometimes as young as 10 - but I don't follow that.

"I have four sons and I didn't let any of them marry young. Tradition is tradition, but I want them to be able to support their families when they marry.

"They all know I've got a 21-year-old single son and others laugh at me saying he's an old man and without a wife, but I don't care."

Mr Bancuta claims that gypsy neighbours in Vaslui, Romania, were upset his daughter Dinarca had been allowed to stay single despite interest from local boys.

A family of a 17-year-old boy who had known Dinarca since they were children were also known to be upset.

Mr Bancuta said: "I let my daughter go to the pharmacists on January 4 to get a painkiller for a nail infection. We haven't seen her since."

He claimed they received a note from the family of the 17-year-old – the Stanescu family – offering £7,500 for the girl's hand in marriage to their son.

He added: "I've got in touch with his parents and also his grandparents but they now claim they don't know anything."

Dinarca's mother Natalita Bancuta, 43, added: "Our daughter is the family princess, we gave her everything she wanted, we prepared her things and gifts for when she does get married and now they have stolen her from us.

"If anyone has touched her I want to see them jailed."

Police say they have questioned the family of the 17-year-old boy but so far have not found any trace of her or the boy.