Did Kampusch have a child with her kidnapper?

Austrian MPs claim police covered up existence of child born to woman held captive for eight years

LAST UPDATED AT 13:37 ON Thu 1 Dec 2011

NATASCHA KAMPUSCH, the young Austrian woman who was abducted at the age of 10 and held captive in a cellar for the next eight years, may have had a baby with her kidnapper. And the baby's existence may have been subsequently covered up by the authorities, it was claimed yesterday by a prominent politician.
 
Heinz Strache, leader of the opposition Freedom Party, said he had been given access to leaked documents about the police investigation into Kampusch's incarceration, which ended in 2006 when she escaped from Wolfgang Priklopil's house in Strasshof.
 
Strache claims that police ignored key evidence such as a lock of child's hair and a book about childbirth that were allegedly found in Kampusch's basement prison. There were "serious flaws in the investigation", Strache said, and "the whole thing just stinks from start to finish."
 
He was joined in his call for a renewed probe into the case by Green MP Peter Pilz, who went further by demanding the public prosecutors and investigators involved in the case - Werner Pleischl, Thomas Mühlbacher and Hans-Peter Kronawetter - be suspended. "It is absolutely imperative these prosecutors are suspended so they cannot have any more influence on the case," Pilz said.
 
Another Freedom Party MP suggested the baby may have died and been buried in the garden of Priklopil's house. Dagmar Belakowich-Jenewein said that dogs brought in to detect human corpses had found something. "They said it was just mouldy wood," he said. "But that's not possible at all. These dogs are so well trained they can differentiate between human and animal remains."
 
It's not the first time that the official story of the abduction has been called into question. In the past it has been alleged that Priklopil, whom Kampusch said was a stranger to her, was actually a family friend.
 
It has also been reported that far from acting alone, Priklopil, who committed suicide hours after Kampusch escaped, was part of a paedophile ring. ·