No child porn link to Natascha Kampusch kidnap

THE man who kidnapped Austrian schoolgirl Natascha Kampusch in 1998 and held her in a secret cell under his house for eight years almost certainly acted alone, according to special investigators.

Ms Kampusch was snatched on her way to school at the age of ten by Wolfgang Priklopil and held in a tiny, windowless room under his garage until she escaped in 2006. Priklopil then killed himself.

The original inquiry found there were no accomplices. But theories of a second perpetrator and of a police cover-up to protect senior figures involved in an alleged child pornography ring persisted, and were partly supported by Ms Kampusch’s father.

Last July, Austria’s parliament appointed a team of experts, including members of the FBI and Germany’s BKA crime office, to check to see whether mistakes had been made in investigating the notorious crime.

“No connections could be established between Wolfgang P and any red-light, sado-masochist or paedophile scene, despite wide-ranging investigations,” the experts wrote in their 156-page report.