Dutch child poetry plagiarist unmasked

AMSTERDAM, Mar 28 (Reuters) The 10-year-old winner of a children's poetry competition had to hand back her prize money after newspaper readers noticed that her poem was the work of a well known writer.

''It's a mini drama for her. She did not realise it had been written by someone else,'' a member of the competition jury said today. ''It started as a school project and was followed by many events ... probably she just forgot.'' The parents of primary school pupil Fieke agreed to give back the 125 euro prize and the jury admitted it should have recognised the work of children's author Francine Oomen earlier.

REUTERS DKS BS1633