Dark, hungry days of Natascha’s lost childhood

by admin
August 27th, 2006

THE circumstances of Natascha Kampusch’s eight-year kidnap ordeal became clearer yesterday as her mother said that the 18-year-old Viennese girl weighed less now than when she was abducted.

Brigitte Sirny said she had been shopping for size six clothes for her daughter, whose weight had dropped to 41 kilograms despite having grown to a height of 160 centimetres. She said her daughter had “nothing” but an orange dress she was wearing when she escaped her “master”.

Natascha has developed a formal, slightly stilted high-German accent similar to that of a radio presenter. She is intelligent and articulate and uses sophisticated language to express what remain childish thoughts.

During her years locked in an underground cell by her captor, Wolfgang Priklopil, she was able to listen to a radio, which her kidnapper controlled via a timer outside her cell, as well as some children’s television programs.

Fresh air was pumped in through a pipe, but there was no daylight in the cell.

Psychologists said that while biologically she was a young woman, emotionally she had remained a child, having been unable to develop either a proper sense of self, or relationships with other people.

They said it could take her years, and constant therapy before she was able to lead anything close to a normal life. They said it could not be ruled out that she might try to take her own life.

She escaped last week when her captor took a telephone call.

“That’s when I ran,” said Natascha. She ran into a neighbour’s garden.

Priklopil fled when he realised the girl had escaped and threw himself in front of a train.

Police yesterday confirmed newspaper reports that Priklopil had sexually abused Natascha. The Austrian daily Kurier, quoting an unidentified investigator, said the teenager wept inconsolably when she was told of her captor’s death. It said that at least some of the sexual activity was consensual, based on excerpts from diaries that the girl kept.

They also confirmed that DNA taken from Priklopil’s body show he was not involved in any other known crimes.

The reclusive technician who had kidnapped the girl in March 1998, had relaxed his grip on her since her 18th birthday in February, she told an investigator.

Source : http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/