Natascha Kampusch ‘tried to escape three times’

Natascha Kampusch, the young Austrian woman who was held captive in a cellar for eight-and-a-half years, tried to escape three times before she finally got away, a court official has revealed.

Kampusch, who is now 21, has never given a full account of her years in captivity, despite hosting her own chat show on Austrian TV. Her tormentor Wolfgang Priklopil abducted Kampusch in March 1998, when, aged 10, she was on her way to school in Vienna. She finally escaped in August 2006, aged 18.

Now Austrian prosecutor Thomas Muehlbacher has shed some light on Kampusch's ordeal. He said she once tried to reach out to a Dutch tourist in a restroom during a ski trip, one of several excursions on which Priklopil took Kampusch. On another occasion, Kampusch tried to get away while visiting a Vienna apartment Priklopil was renovating. A third attempt to leave Priklopil's home in the town of Strasshof failed because Kampusch felt too weak, Muehlbacher said.

However, Muehlbacher rejected a report that claimed Kampusch twice returned to her captor of her own accord.

When Kampusch finally did escape, Priklopil committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a train. She has since bought his house, in order to protect it from vandals and stop it being torn down. "I know it's grotesque - I must now pay for electricity, water and taxes on a house I never wanted to live in," she told the German magazine Bunte.

Meanwhile it was reported on Christmas Eve that the head of the Austrian inquiry investigating Kampusch’s kidnapping was fined €10,000 for saying she had a better life in captivity than with her parents.

Ludwig Adamovich, an Austrian law professor, was sued by Kampusch's mother Brigitte Sirny for slander after he said her daughter's life while locked up "was always better than what she had known until then". He said that Sirny “was not loving and affectionate with her daughter”.

Professor Adamovich has previously suggested that Priklopil may not have been working alone, but could have been part of a paedophile ring. ·