THE parents of Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian teenager who was held captive in a cellar for eight years, complained yesterday that they were being prevented from seeing her.

“A daughter needs her mother. Why can I not see my child?” Brigitta Sirny said. “Natascha is locked up again now. That is terrible for me.” Ludwig Koch, Natascha’s father, said: “Isn’t it madness that I don’t know where she is now?” Police say that Natascha, now 18, refuses to see her parents, who are divorced. She was in a “safe” place and was free to leave at any time.

Gerhard Lang, a police officer, confirmed that Natascha did not want to see her parents after having had a first reunion with them. “The police are not banning contact with Natascha,” he said. “Natascha is an adult, 18½ years old. She is fully capable of making decisions for herself.”

Natascha was kidnapped in March 1998 by Wolfgang Priklopil, a telecoms technician who committed suicide last week after she fled. Natascha was found in the town of Strasshof, 25km northeast of Vienna, on Wednesday after escaping. She is reported to weigh slightly more than 40kg (6st) and is 1.6m (5ft 3in) tall.

Asked what Natascha looked like, Frau Sirny, 55, said: “Pretty! Long hair pinned up. Thin. It’s not easy for me. She was a child, and now she’s a grown woman.” She said that waiting for Natascha’s return became the focus of her life. “I prayed every day, ‘Please, Natascha, hold on!’ I celebrated her birthdays, baked cakes, which I threw away.” She said that she also went to clairvoyants and psychics. “They all said the same — Natascha is alive.”

Frau Sirny said that she was glad that the kidnapper was dead. “That will spare Natascha being confronted with him and all the court appearances. I still get cold shivers down my back when I think that I drove past this house. She ate practically only cold things, such as bread and sausage, and hardly any fruit or vegetables.”

Newspapers reported that Natascha cried a lot when she found out that Priklopil had killed himself, suggesting that she suffered from Stockholm syndrome, in which captives develop a positive relationship with their captors over time.

Psychiatrists have said that even though she initially was forced to call Priklopil “master”, he may have taken on the role of a substitute father in her eyes. Press reports said that Natascha may have had sexual relations with Priklopil and that they were voluntary. Similar claims were made by a policewoman who spoke to the young woman, but investigators will not confirm it.

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