Police decided for the rare move - the identity of children is subject to strict protection in custody disputes - after failing to find the girl despite more than 200 interviews and extensive searches around the country.

This is yet another episode in a painful custody battle that has become a nation-wide story over the past year amidst accusations of sexual abuse and court bias in favour of mothers.

Custody of the girl has been awarded to the mother last year, but the father refused to accept the court decision, hitting back with the accusation that the girl had been sexually abused by her maternal grandfather.

The charges were dismissed but the father, who went public with the accusations, managed to resist several attempts by police to have the child taken away.

The father was arrested in June, but not before he hid the girl. He has been in custody since and is undergoing trial at the Slovenj Gradec District Court on charges of kidnapping a minor.

The story gained national prominence with accusations by the father and a psychologist that police, courts and the prosecution were deliberately ignoring evidence of sexual abuse because of mother bias.

A criminal investigator found in interviews with the girl that she fears her grandfather, but no evidence of sexual abuse was found.

The case even made it to parliamentary agenda as the Home Policy Committee debated it in October at the request of the opposition Democrats (SDS), who argued that the case had not been handled properly and ought to be reassigned to some other court.