Natascha Kampusch case resurfaces

My friends, this was taken from The Independent newspaper:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/natascha-kampusch-case-resurfaces-murder-theory-rises-over-suicide-of-police-chief-who-led-inquiry-into-eightyear-disappearance-of-schoolgirl-8927583.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4421116/Natascha-Kampusch-says-captor-ENCOURAGED-escape.html#ixzz4ee47svli


Natascha Kampusch reveals she was too terrified to flee when her captor told her 'run, see how far you get'…. and still has a difficult relationship with her father ten years after she escaped


.Natascha Kampusch was held captive for more than eight years by Priklopil
.She escaped from his house in Vienna, Austria, in 2006 through a garden gate
.But Kampusch has now revealed that Priklopil encouraged her to run away
.Said he dragged her to the door in her underwear after shaving her head and told her: 'Come on now, run. Let's see how    far you get'
.Kampusch said she was too emotionally broken to open the front door

By Chris Pleasance for MailOnline

Published: 12:55, 18 April 2017 | Updated: 18:32, 18 April 2017


For eight and a half years she was kept in a Vienna basement - subjected to vile sexual abuse and beatings before she escaped in 2006.

Now Natascha Kampusch, 29, has revealed that captor Wolfgang Priklopil actually encouraged her to flee, but she was too humiliated to take the chance.

Writing in her new book, Ten Years of Freedom, she said: 'One of the worst scenes during my captivity was when he shoved me, wearing only a pair of panties, half-starved, covered in bruises and with my head completely shorn, in front of the front door and said: "Come on now, run. Let's see how far you get."

I was so humiliated and filled with shame that I couldn't take a single step.

'He tore me away from the door, saying: "So you see. The world out there doesn't want you anyway. Your place is here and only here."'

Natascha was just 10 in March 1998 when she was snatched by Priklopil while on her way to school and imprisoned in a room beneath his house.

There, he starved, beat and abused her for most of her formative years, before a chance phonecall that Priklopil took while she was cleaning his car created enough of a distraction for her to sneak out through a garden gate.

Priklopil killed himself the same day, by jumping in front of a train.

But while Kampusch was able to walk out of the physical prison her computer-nerd captor had created for her, she then found herself in an emotional cage.

Particularly difficult was reestablishing a relationship with her parents, she told the Daily Telegraph, a task she had to complete amid cruel conspiracy theories that questioned her version of events.

Her father even spoke to one theorist, and his comments were later used in a book designed to undermine her.

She said: 'My father was very easily influenced. Those early days were filled with lots of emotions on both sides. Things are still difficult with my father.

'My mother is a tough person and is in a good way. When I escaped, they expected the girl that had been taken from them, but I was adult. They went through pain, too.'

Another difficult task was reconciling her relationship with Priklopil. While he was her abuser, he was also her only human contact during her time in captivity.

Kampusch has previously revealed how she spends her weekends at his old house, which was passed to her as compensation after he died.

It is still in the condition it was when she was kept there, except for the basement, which she says local authorities 'forced' her to fill in.

She spends her time at the house cleaning - just as Priklopil made her do in the past.

This could be a symptom of her PTSD, as she confesses to suffering flashbacks if she sits still for too long. Psychologists think she is unable to break her emotional connection to the trauma in her life.

n the book, she also recalls going to visit Priklopil's body at the morgue and mourning his death.

That relationship has also made intimacy difficult, she explains, saying that she struggles to trust people.

Fascination with her case has also meant she cannot go anywhere with a man in public for fear of rumours starting to circulate. She insists that she has not been romantically involved with anyone since her escape.

Last year, on the tenth anniversary of her escape, Natascha recalled the details to Germany's Bild newspaper.

She said: 'I was told to clean his car. He wanted to sell it and had told me to clean it really thoroughly and completely.

'I remember that I felt like I could eat a horse because I had to make him jam sandwiches for breakfast but got nothing myself.'

At 12.56pm Priklopil, 44, took a call on his mobile phone and was momentarily distracted.

Natascha went on: 'Previously he has observed me all the time. But because of the vacuum cleaner whirring in my hand he had to walk a few steps away to better understand his caller.'

Natascha, who received his house in his estate - he died beneath the wheels of a train later that night - said: 'I crept to the gate which was usually closed or blocked by heavy objects, but not on this day.

'I could hardly breathe. I felt solidified, as if my arms and legs were paralyzed. Jumbled images shot through me.'

At 12.58pm she opened the gate and ran to freedom.

'I looked to the right and left without knowing which way to go,' she said. 'Then I ran.'

Natascha walked past two family homes where she could have asked for help but didn't. explaining: 'I was afraid he would follow me here so I wanted to get further away and hide.'

She decided to run to a local allotment.

She said: 'There I met two men who were traveling with a boy. I asked them to make a call with their mobile phone but they ignored me and simply went further along.

'Then I saw a woman in a garden house and knocked on her window and whispered 'Please help me!'

'She asked what I was doing in her garden and then called the police.'

Kampusch has had no contact with the woman who saved her since.

Kampusch has written a new book about her life called Ten Years of Freedom but her ordeal goes on.

A new probe is underway concerning the alleged suicide of Priklopil. Two coroners who examined the case files determined that he might have been murdered and that is now being investigated.

She quit Facebook because she was branded a fake and doesn't bother with Twitter 'because I will not burden people with my visions of the future.'

Shortly after her release she said she had dreamed of having children, but no longer. Psychiatrists believe she has a mental block in letting go of the past.