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Vienna judges today opened legal proceedings that could dramatically alter the sensational story of Austrian kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch by determining whether her mother took part in her abduction.
Martin Wabl, a former Austrian judge and politician who became involved in investigating the Kampusch case shortly after she was kidnapped while on her way to school in March 1998, told a Vienna court that he believed that Mrs Brigitte Sirny, Natascha's mother, was behind her daughter's disappearance.
Natascha Kampusch made a dramatic escape from her kidnapper, 44-year-old Wolfgang Priklopil on August 23 last year. Aged 18, she had been held in an underground cell beneath the garage of his home in a Vienna suburb for eight years. After her escape, Priklopil comitted sucide by throwing himself under an express train.
Mr Wabl, a former presidential candidate for the Austrian Green party has repeatedly claimed that Mrs Sirny knew Priklopil. He has alleged that she helped to organise her daughter's disappearance to conceal the fact that Natascha was abused and photographed in sexually provocative poses and may have been the victim of a paedophile racket.
Mrs Sirny invoked a court injunction against Mr Wabl, preventing him from making such allegations against her and has repeatedly denied any involvement in her daughter's abduction.
However, Mr Wabl won the right to challenge the injunction on the grounds that it had been invoked without Natascha Kampusch being questioned. Austrian legal experts said that although judges hearing Mr Wabl's plea had four weeks make a decision, it was highly probable that the case would go ahead and that Natascha Kampusch would be obliged to appear as a witness.
Mr Wabl's lawyer said that his client had evidence from nine people questioned at the time of Natascha's kidnapping, which suggested that Mrs Sirny was implicated in her daughter's kidnapping. They included Mrs Sirny's neighbours, a former male companion of hers and a senior police officer involved in investigating the case.
One of Mr Wabl's key witnesses, Thomas Vogel, a German national, told Austrian police in the days after Natascha's abduction that he had evidence about a " paedophile scene" and a " dungeon porn film" which allegedly contained shots of the kidnapped girl.
Max Edelbacher, a former Vienna police chief who was involved in the initial hunt for Natascha in 1998, is another of Mr Wabl's witnesses. He has said that his investigations led him to conclude that Natascha Kampusch was unhappy with her parents had been forced into sex before her kidnapping.
He has revealed details of a family photo album found in Mrs Sirny's home which contained shots of her daughter posing semi-naked in boots and holding a riding crop. Another photograph showed Natascha, who was then aged 10, lying on a bed naked apart from a fur stole.
Brigitte Sirny and Ludwig Koch, Natascha's father have both vehemently denied any involvement in their daughter's kidnapping. Questioned about the possibility after her escape Natascha Kampusch insisted: "My mother told me that she had nothing to do with Priklopil. I am one hundred per cent certain that she was not lying."
In subsequent interviews, she gave conflicting reports about her relationship with her kidnapper. In one she said that Priklopil had cared for her "every need." In another she admitted " I had bad thoughts, sometimes I dreamt of chopping his head off, had I possessed an axe.
"Numerous media and police reports published in the aftermath of her escape last year, claimed that she had been sexually abused by her kidnapper. However Natascha, who now divides her time between her own city apartment in Vienna and her mother's flat, has repeatedly refused to discuss the question.
Allan Hall, co-author of " Girl in the Cellar" an account of the Kampusch case said yesterday that Mr Wabl's case could shed important new light on the kidnapping: " Both Mrs Sirny and Natascha herself still face many questions that need answering," he said.
- INDEPENDENT
