JK Rowling started charity after viewing image of a caged child

London, Dec 5 : Wizard whiz JK Rowling was so moved by an image of a boy in a cage in a newspaper that she decided to start a charity to transform his and other children's lives across Eastern Europe.

The Harry Potter author had viewed Vasek Knotek's picture four years ago.

She said that the image haunted her so much that she ended up spearheading a multi-million-pound campaign.

A very ecstatic Rowling revealed, during the launch of her book 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard' in Edinburgh on December 4, that Knotek had now been freed. "I'm delighted to say that the little boy is no longer caged at all," the Scotsman quoted her as saying.

"He's surprising his carers every day with what he is managing to achieve," she said.

Knotek, who is about nine years old and has autism, had been kept in a crib, which had iron bars with chicken wire covering it.

The little boy, who was locked in the cage and had no human contact except during mealtimes, developed institutionalised behaviour that went from rocking back and forth to banging his head against the bars.

Sales of the volume of five fairytales, with eight million copies in print worldwide, will help fund the Children's High Level Group (CHLG), a charity Rowling co-founded for vulnerable Eastern European children.

The Raby Social Care Home near Prague, where he and about ten other children are housed with 90 adults, will be one of the first Czech institutions to work with experts funded by CHLG in a pilot project.

ANI