Natascha's story is one of a few that motivated me to start this blog. The girl is absolutely brilliant and has emerged from an 8.5 year ordeal remarkably well. I recently watched her story on Netflix and you can't help but be impressed with her remarkable wisdom. A few things she said at the end of the video left me wondering if she still has issues that need addressing and this story just adds to that concern. Still, she is an extraordinary young woman.
James Rothwell
Austrian Natascha Kampusch pictured prior to the presentation of the German television station 'NDR's' documentary 'Natascha Kampusch - 3096 days imprisonment' CREDIT: PICTURE ALLIANCE/DPA/PHOTOSHOT
Former Austrian kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch CREDIT: AFP
Austrian kidnapping victim Natascha Kampusch has relived the moment she made her escape from a house where she was kept prisoner for more than eight years.
The so-called "girl in the cellar" was locked up in a purpose-built jail cell under the house and kept under constant surveillance by disturbed loner Wolfgang Priklopil.
During her eight-and-a-half-year imprisonment she was subjected to horrific abuse by Priklopil, such as being stripped, starved and beaten and sexually abused.
This week marks the tenth (actually, it's the 11th) anniversary of her escape, when she managed to run away from her captor after he was distracted by a phone call.
3096 is based on the book 3096 Days, Natascha herself wrote, and is probably better done than the documentary I watched on Netflix last night.
Ms Kampusch bought the property in 2008 for a reported £200,000, going against the advice of psychologists who said she needed to move on.
Despite the horrors she witnessed in the house, Ms Kampusch has disclosed that even today she still visits the place to make sure it is kept in order.
Speaking to German newspaper Bild, the 28-year-old revealed that she spends several nights a week in her former prison and still carries a photograph of Priklopil in her handbag.
The escape
In the first detailed account of her bid for freedom on August 23 2006, 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."
Later that evening, her 44-year-old kidnapper was briefly distracted when he took a call on his mobile phone.
"Previously he has observed me all the time," she said, "but because of the vacuum cleaner whirring in my hand he had to walk a few steps away to better understand his caller."
"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 paralysed. Jumbled images shot through me."
Ms Kampuschthen dashed to a nearby allotment where she asked two men to call the police - but they ignored her.
She eventually knocked on another neighbour's window and persuaded her to raise the alarm.
In 2008 she bought the house where she spent her lost teenager years to prevent it being vandalised.
Ms Kampusch was just ten years old when she was kidnapped by Priklopil as she walked to school.
A new investigation into his suspected suicide is underway, amid suspicions that he may have been murdered by a local paedophile ring in an attempted cover-up.
Kampusch, herself, says there was no such thing as a paedophile ring in her experience.
Donaustad, Vienna, Austria
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