A year on from her 'escape' from the cellar and clutches of the man who held her captive for eight years, Natascha Kampusch, now 19, still fascinates the Austrian press and public.
At first perceived as a victim; then (as stories of a manipulative nature emerged) as a villain; now as an enigma - as baffling as when she first sat blinking in front of the TV lights trying to describe her extraordinary teenage years.
Natascha was snatched off the street at the age of 10, and imprisoned in a basement room by Wolfgang Priklopil, who threw himself in front of a train when she finally got away.
Journalists have never quite known how to project Natascha. This week Austrian television is showing Natascha - A Year On, a programme that portrays her catching up for lost time and rejoining the real world:
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A year after the end of her ordeal, the Austrian kidnap victim remains an enigma, says robert chesshyre |
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taking driving lessons, flying for the first time, learning sports. At the same time, critical journalists pursue stories about what has happened to huge sums of money raised in Natascha's name for a fund for abused women. (Natascha's first charitable impulse had been to raise money for starving African children, so that they would not go hungry as she had in her cellar.)
While she herself has, seemingly, been living the good life (she made a great deal of money from interviews and she enjoys smart shops), a mere £34,000 is sitting in the abused women account. Her lawyer, Gerald Ganzger, has given the same answer for months: "We will know more by the end of the year."
Natascha's parents have had a spectacular falling-out. Her mother Brigitta Sirny wrote a book, leading her father, Ludwig Koch, to threaten to sue. Koch has not seen his  |
Natascha: the mystery deepens
Victim or villain: Austria decides
