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04. 01. 10. - 12:00

Kampusch 'fled twice but returned on same day'

By Thomas Hochwarter

Kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch fled her sick jailer twice during captivity – but came back to him within hours of each attempt, a magazine has claimed.

News weekly profil claims in its edition today (Mon) that the 21-year-old – who was kept in a dungeon cellar for more than eight years by Wolfgang Priklopil after being snatched off the road on her way to school in Vienna – first ran away when Priklopil took her with him to a flat where he was doing renovation work.

She then ran away from his house in Strasshof an der Nordbahn in Lower Austria where she was held.

But on both occasions she returned on the same day, the weekly claims.

It also says Kampusch was forced to help her captor build the cellar dungeon he put her in as it had not been Priklopil’s original plan to lock her in his basement. The magazine claims the dungeon chamber did not exist when Kampusch was kidnapped.

And profil claims Kampusch told investigators of a sinister incident when Priklopil drove her into woods and made a phone call in which he talked about "handing her over".

The magazine wrote that possible accomplices of her kidnapper may be putting pressure on Kampusch not to reveal information regarding her relationship with Priklopil – who committed suicide on the day she ran away in 2006 – so as not to destroy the public image of her being a victim.

Profil says Kampusch talked openly to police after she fled before a team of psychologists and advisors took over her care.

And it quotes investigators as saying that she "seemed [to have been] prepared" for various questions from detectives, and the magazine pointed out Kampusch’s team are now charging huge sums for interviews.

A private detective meanwhile had claimed Kampusch said her kidnapper was the only person who had ever been nice to her just months after she escaped. Walter Pöchhacker told profil Kampusch told the Hungarian wife of her father Ludwig Koch at a Christmas party in 2006 it seemed to her as if "only Wolfi (Priklopil) was sometimes nice to me" after he told her she seemed depressed.

Pöchhacker also claims Kampusch once said during her childhood that she hoped a plane carrying her mother would crash so she did not have to live with her anymore. The detective writes in his book Kampusch once told a family friend who was taking care of her while her mother Brigitta Sirny was on holidays in Paris that she hoped the plane she was on would crash so she could live with her. When the woman told her not to speak badly about her mother, Kampusch suggested she could put flowers on her grave, according to the detective.

The detective claims Kampusch never denied having made the statements.

The magazine also writes Priklopil had not used Kampusch in part of Austria’s "S&M scene" – despite previous media claims pictures existed showing this.

It also claimed Brigitta Sirny did not know Wolfgang Priklopil before he kidnapped her daughter as had been claimed in a book and by some media.

The news comes just days after it emerged investigations into the case might continue this year.

Graz prosecutors – who were assigned to look into the case for potential police mistakes and cover-ups – said they handed their report to Vienna officials shortly before Christmas. The Vienna state prosecution has to decide whether their Graz colleagues and a six-member commission should continue to investigate. An announcement is expected for the end of this month.

The head of the special commission assigned to assist prosecutors has meanwhile said he may step down from the voluntary post after he was fined over claiming Natascha Kampusch’s time in captivity might have been better than her childhood life.

Ludwig Adamovich, former head of the Federal Constitutional Court, was fined 5,000 Euros by a Vienna court last month.

Brigitta Sirny, Kampusch’s mother, had launched legal action against the 77-year-old over his comments.

Judge Brigit Schneider said the crime was "unique" and only those of incest monster Josef Fritzl had been worse. She said it was unacceptable to compare Kampusch’s eight years of captivity with her childhood, she argued.

Meanwhile a new TV documentary about the case is to be broadcast this month.

The German production "Natascha Kampusch - 3.096 Tage Gefangenschaft" (Natascha Kampusch – 3,096 Days in Captivity) will be screened by German station ARD on 25 January.

Kampusch – who acquired Priklopil’s estate shortly after she fled the house in 2006 – allowed the production team to film inside the house as well as in the cellar basement she is considering filling in with concrete.

Austrian Times

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