Did Her Mother Sell Natascha? ; She's the 19-Year Old Austrian Girl Who Escaped From a Basement Prison Where She'd Been Held for Eight Years. Now, in a Story That Gets Murkier by the Day, an Ex-Judge Claims Her Own Mother Sold Her Into Paedophilia ...

Summary

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BEYOND the confines of Austria, where Natascha Kampusch's every move continues to make headlines, last year's most compelling human story appeared to be meandering to a close.

The girl who survived eight years locked in a tiny underground dungeon was readjusting as well as might be expected; her feuding parents had agreed to a truce for their daughter's sake, and she was back, albeit uneasily, in the bosom of her family.

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Did Her Mother Sell Natascha? ; She's the 19-Year Old Austrian Girl Who Escaped From a Basement Prison Where She'd Been Held for Eight Years. Now, in a Story That Gets Murkier by the Day, an Ex-Judge Claims Her Own Mother Sold Her Into Paedophilia ...

And although there was more than a sneaking suspicion that Natascha had not revealed the full truth behind her kidnap, it seemed her most ghastly secrets had died forever when her captor, Wolfgang Priklopil, threw himself under a train.

Two days ago, however, in an anonymous little town 100 miles south of Vienna, I sat through a 75-minute court hearing which threatens to catapult Natascha Kampusch back into the spotlight, in the most sordid and sensational manner.

Mercifully, Natascha's presence was not required in Gleisdorf District Court. Instead, facing one another across the cloistered, 18th-century chamber, at tables set just 10ft apart, were Natascha's mother, B...

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