The Indo Daily: GPO Girl – the lives and lies of Samantha Azzopardi

Samantha Azzopardi (inset) cost the Irish state more than €250,000 when she turned up outside the GPO in Dublin in October 2013

March 02 2023 02:30 AM

In 2013, a teenager in a state of distress was found by two gardaí at the GPO on Dublin’s O’Connell Street.

Her disturbing doodles of an airplane, a bed and a gun led gardaí to believe that she was possibly a victim of sex trafficking.

Interpol and the Missing Persons Bureau turned up no leads – and understandably, the puzzle became a big media story that made headlines in Ireland and internationally: ‘Who is GPO Girl?’

But efforts to identify her proved fruitless until gardaí publicly released a photograph. 'GPO Girl' was in fact a 25-year-old Australian con woman called Samantha Azzopardi. But this was just the tip of the iceberg.