NATASCHA KAMPUSCH looked happy and content when her kidnapper introduced her to his closest friend a month before she escaped, it was claimed yesterday.

Ernst Holzapfel said that he met Fräulein Kampusch in mid-July when her kidnapper, Wolfgang Priklopil, called at his home to borrow a trailer. “As I opened the door, he introduced the young woman as his acquaintance, but never mentioned her name,” Herr Holzapfel said. “We shook hands and she greeted me politely. I was very surprised, and could not determine whether she was his girlfriend or just a friend.”

Herr Holzapfel saw Priklopil shortly before he killed himself on the day Fräulein Kampusch escaped. The two men had been business partners.

Herr Holzapfel denied that he knew Priklopil was holding Fräulein Kampusch, and described how his friend had telephoned him on the night of his death asking to be picked up from a shopping centre in Vienna, saying it was an emergency and he had fled a police checkpoint because he was drunk. He had thought that Priklopil would turn himself in, but learnt later that he had thrown himself under a train.

Meanwhile, Ludwig Koch, Fräulein Kampusch’s father, has told Austrian television that Priklopil had told his daughter that he had asked for a ransom. But, according to Herr Koch, Priklopil had told Fräulein Kampusch that her father could not be reached. It was, said Herr Koch, an attempt to convince the girl that her parents had lost interest.

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