A woman who posed as a 12-year-old girl and was looked after by a family for more than a year has been jailed.
Amanda Maria Souza de Oliveira, 38, was treated as a daughter by the couple while receiving accommodation, food, medication and other care over a 14 month period in Brazil.
She was convicted of fraud and using a false identity and sentenced to prison for a total of one year, 10 months and 28 days by a court in Joinville, a city in northern Santa Catarina state on Wednesday.
How the deception unfolded
The court heard how she initially introduced herself to the family as "Gabriele" and claimed to be 18, saying she had experience in baking and was looking for work.
After gaining the family's trust, she changed her story, claiming she was actually 11 years old and had been abused and abandoned. Oliveira also claimed to have autism and other health problems, while saying her adult appearance was because she had allegedly been forced to take hormones during childhood.
She reinforced the alleged deception by behaving like a child, including using pacifiers and baby bottles, playing with toys and making children's drawings.
Family organised birthday party
The family went so far as to organise a birthday party for what they believed was Amanda's 12th birthday and paid for a weight-loss treatment using the prescription drug tirzepatide.
The court said the fraud allowed Amanda to obtain "the full cost of her own subsistence" while she lived with the family. The judge concluded that she had acted consciously "to induce and maintain the victims in error" in order to obtain material benefits through the false identity.
But the deception began to unravel when a relative of the family searched online and found reports about previous cases involving Oliveira in other Brazilian states.
Arrest and conviction
The family contacted police at the end of May and Amanda was arrested at their home on 2nd June. During questioning, she admitted using a false name and age and told police she was actually from Ceara rather than Para, where she had claimed to have originated.
Evidence used to convict her included a forensic examination of her seized mobile phone, statements from the victims and witnesses, and her own admission that she had used false personal details.
Police said the Joinville case was not an isolated incident, with investigators linking Oliveira to alleged similar deceptions in states including São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Goias, Parana and Ceara.
Other alleged victims speak out
Social worker Delma Soares said Oliveira had stayed with her in Belo Horizonte in 2017 while using the name Karolina and presenting herself as a vulnerable teenager. Oliveira allegedly contacted her after a presentation and asked whether she helped people affected by prostitution and child abuse.
Soares said: "She had the posture and behaviour of a teenager. She liked to wear children's clothes with childish designs." The social worker later became suspicious, saying Oliveira's physical strength and sudden changes in behaviour did not fit the age she claimed.
"When I said she was an adult, people thought I was mistaken. I had no proof, only the conviction I had built through living with her," she continued. Oliveira had reportedly arrived with injuries caused by needles and pieces of wire and was taken to hospital, where examinations found objects in her body.
Another alleged victim, nutritionist Renata Magalhaes, said Oliveira used the name Duda when they met in Rio de Janeiro in 2023 and claimed to be an autistic teenager who had suffered abuse.
Magalhaes said the alleged deception was carefully constructed using childish behaviour, drawings and emotional episodes. "Her phone was full of searches. She researched how an autistic person behaves and how to make drawings to move evangelical people," she said.
It was also alleged by Magalhaes that Oliveira had inserted needles into herself and later vomited them in front of her. She added: "I have seen many people laughing and making jokes on the internet, but she is a fraudster, a narcissist, a dangerous woman. She is a person who puts on a character like a coat and creates a totally fake narrative."
Further allegations and defence
A psychologist who encountered Oliveira in Recife in 2023 said she also carried a teddy bear, spoke in a childlike voice and claimed to have suffered sexual abuse. The psychologist said: "She demonstrated childish behaviour in her body language and an infantilised voice, but we could see the traits of an adult woman. We could see there was a performance there; it was not something genuine or natural."
Oliveira also allegedly used another identity, Emily, in Parana during the Covid-19 pandemic, claiming to be a 13-year-old girl suffering from terminal leukaemia. One woman who became emotionally attached to the supposed child reportedly even had the name "Emily" tattooed on her wrist.
In another case in Jundiai, Sao Paulo, in 2022, Oliveira allegedly identified herself as Ana Clara dos Santos Oliveira, claimed to have been born in 2009 and told authorities she had escaped a house of prostitution where she had allegedly been sexually exploited since childhood.
She had previously denied intending to defraud anyone, saying: "It is clear that I deceived people, I lied. But I did not intend to scam anyone."
Her defence had argued that the false identity was a survival strategy rather than a deliberate fraud, with lawyer Lucio Sousa saying: "It was the way she found to survive. But she has been a vulnerable person for more than 20 years."
Following the conviction, the defence said it will immediately pursue all available legal measures and appeals "to reform the judgement and prove Amanda Maria Souza de Oliveira's innocence."
