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JAS
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080427/ ... c696a.html
Reuters - 2 hours 7 minutes ago
VIENNA (Reuters) - An Austrian woman says she was kept prisoner and abused by her own father for 24 years in a basement dungeon in eastern Austria, where she bore him seven children, Austrian police said on Sunday.
The 42-year-old woman has been named by police as Elisabeth F. and told authorities she had been abused by her father, now 73, since the age of 11.
She told police her father Joseph lured her into the basement of their house in the town of Amstetten in 1984, and drugged and handcuffed her before locking her up.
"She had been abused continuously during the 24-year-long imprisonment," the statement said. "This led to six children."
The woman had given birth to seven children and one of them died shortly after being born, according to police.
The woman said Joseph provided her and three of her children, who were locked up with her, with clothing and food. His wife Rosemarie had not been aware of what was going on.
The case came to light when the oldest child named as Kerstin F. fell severely ill and had to be taken to Amstetten hospital.
"A 19-year-old girl was dropped off at the Amstetten hospital last weekend," a spokesman for police said.
"The girl is seriously ill and is fighting for her life. A search for the mother, who had disappeared, was launched to get more details about the girl."
DNA samples of all the people involved have been taken and will be evaluated, police added.
The case is reminiscent of that of Austrian Natascha Kampusch, who spent eight year locked up in a windowless cell before dashing to freedom in August 2006.
(Reporting by Karin Strohecker; Editing by Robert Woodward)
