Teen groom of child bride faces arrest

THE teenage groom of a 12-year-old girl forced into a gypsy marriage in Romania is facing arrest.

And the girl, Ana Maria Cioaba, the daughter of a self-proclaimed gypsy king, may be put in an orphanage. Ana's weekend marriage to 15-year-old Birita Mihai has drawn the condemnation of the European Union and human rights groups.

Police in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu were investigating whether Mihai was guilty of statutory rape, said Calin Tatu, the spokesman for the local prosecutor's office. Cristina Sasu, a spokeswoman for the police in Sibiu, 185 miles north-west of Bucharest, said that investigators had ordered Cioaba to undergo a medical examination to determine whether the marriage was consummated. If Mihai is found guilty of having sex with a minor, he could be sent to a rehabilitation centre, Sasu said.