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Kampusch kidnapper pal faces trial

The best mate and business partner of Natascha Kampusch kidnapper Wolfgang Priklopil is facing charges for complicity in suicide, it emerged today (Tues).

Vienna state prosecution official Gerhard Jarosch confirmed that investigations against Ernst Holzapfel were ongoing. He is accused of obstructing police work for not helping to save Priklopil's life on the day Kampusch managed to escape his clutches.

Ernst Holzapfel was not regarded as a suspect when investigators interviewed him earlier this year, but the Vienna businessman gave contradictory statements.

Holzapfel told cops Priklopil had never told him about the kidnapping, but admitted in recent interviews his sick pal had poured out his heart about the kidnapping on 23 August 2006, the day Kampusch fled from his house in Strasshof an der Nordbahn just outside Vienna. He now faces two years in jail.

Kampusch was kept in a self-made dungeon cellar by pervert Priklopil for more than eight years after being snatched off the road on her way to school in Vienna at the age of ten. Her kidnapper committed suicide by jumping in front of a train on the day she fled his estate to tell neighbours: "Help me, I�m Natascha Kampusch."

Austrian authorities ended investigations of the case in January after they were restarted last year in order to clarify claims police had not thoroughly checked on tip-offs that could have led to kidnapper Priklopil.

Police chiefs admitted it was a mistake they had not checked over claims by a police dog squad leader who told investigators soon after Kampusch was kidnapped that an obscure loner from Strasshof an der Nordbahn might have had something to do with her disappearance after hearing that police were checking on owners of white Volkswagen vans.

Prosecutors meanwhile said they could rule out that Priklopil had had accomplices.

Austrian Times

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