Abandoned child to live with grandmother-NZ court

WELLINGTON, Oct 4 (Reuters) A New Zealand court has awarded custody of a toddler abandoned in Australia almost two weeks ago to the child's grandmother.

The child was abandoned at a Melbourne train station by a man believed to be her father. Police in Auckland, New Zealand, subsequently found her mother's body in the trunk of a car outside the family's Auckland home.

The child's father is now the subject of a manhunt in the United States.

Despite wide public interest in the case, principal Family Court Judge Peter Boshier said the child and her guardian cannot be named by the media under New Zealand law.

Boshier said both the child's lawyer and grandmother had asked for privacy.

REUTERS PD SSC1206