'No evidence' linking kidnapper to other crimes

Tests on DNA taken from the man who enslaved a young girl for eight years show he was not involved in any other known crimes, police said Saturday.

Scores of Austrians have offered support and prayers for the girl, whose lawyer described her as “well” but unhappy about being portrayed as a victim.

Erich Zwettler of Austria’s federal criminal investigations Office said genetic material from Wolfgang Priklopil turned up no hits in a nationwide databank.

The captor died on Wednesday after throwing himself in front of a Vienna commuter train within hours of Natascha Kampusch’s dramatic escape,

The results mean that Priklopil, 44, was not wanted “anywhere in Austria in connection with a criminal offence,” Mr Zwettler told the Austria Press Agency.

Police spokesman Gerhard Lang said that virtually rules out the possibility that Priklopil was a serial predator who preyed on other girls.

Mr Zwettler said Miss Kampusch, who continues to be kept in a secure and undisclosed location, has not asked for contact with her parents – with whom she was briefly and emotionally reunited this week – and would not be questioned again until Monday at the earliest.

“She urgently needs a break,” he said, adding: “She needs her rest.”

Monika Pinterits, a lawyer who said she spent several hours with Miss Kampusch, told Austrian media today that the teenager was “for the moment well” and enjoying some private time reading newspapers and watching television.

But Pinterits, who described Miss Kampusch as “very intelligent and very eloquent,” said she had objected to being pitied in news accounts about her.

“She is not the poor victim – she is an adult young woman,” she said.

“Natascha Kampusch expects her person and privacy to be respected.”

Miss Kampusch, now 18, was only 10 when she was abducted on her way to school on March 2, 1998.

Police said she was held in a tiny, windowless basement cell by Priklopil, a communications technician, who reportedly initially forced the girl to call him “Master".

APA claim Mr Zwettler initially also confirmed an Austrian newspaper report which said Priklopil had sexual contact with his captor, who allegedly gave details to a female police officer. Later, he backed off that statement, saying the federal police could not officially confirm the nature of the relationship.

It was also reported that Miss Kampusch wept inconsolably when she was told of her captor’s death.

Police psychologists suggested the girl may have suffered from so-called “Stockholm Syndrome,” where victims adapt to what would otherwise be insufferable situations by identifying with their captors.

It is believed Priklopil engaged in elaborate plans to build the hidden cell at least a year before the kidnapping, when he carried out extensive excavation work on his basement. He kept a small photo album of the project, the newspaper said.

Photos released by police showed a small, cluttered room with narrow concrete stairs leading down from an entrance so small it would have to be crawled through. Another photo showed a metal hatch that sealed the windowless, underground room.

Authorities said there was a bed and a toilet in the cramped space. Images on TV showed a small television in the room, which also had a sink and piles of books. Police said the woman was occasionally allowed to watch videos and may even have been schooled by her captor.

Mr Zwettler said Miss Kampusch escaped in an unguarded moment while her abductor stepped away from her to talk on his mobile phone so that he could hear better, while she was vacuuming his car just north of Vienna in the town of Strasshof.

Police continue to comb through the house and are questioning numerous people as they work to determine whether Priklopil acted alone or had any accomplices, Mr Zwettler said.

At the time of the victim’s abduction, another girl told police she had seen two men drag Natascha into a white van.