Austrian man keeps daughter in cellar

[GSDOWNER]

BBC LINK

Police in Amstetten, Austria, have described the cellar where a woman was allegedly held captive and sexually abused for 24 years by her father.

A series of underground rooms equipped for sleeping and cooking, and with sanitary facilities, lay behind a concealed door, police said.

The father, 73, allegedly had seven children with his daughter, now aged 42, and is under arrest.

Authorities are caring for the daughter and six surviving children.

The small town of Amstetten, about 130km (80 miles) west of Vienna, with its well-kept gardens is in shock, the BBC's Bethany Bell reports.

The case, she notes, is reminiscent of that of Natasha Kampusch, the Austrian teenager held captive in a cellar in a house in a Vienna suburb for eight years, who ran to freedom in 2006.

While police are not connecting the two cases, many Austrians are asking how such matters went undiscovered, our correspondent says.

[LOVEGSD]

This is weird and sick!!! That poor woman and those poor kids....what kind of man can call himself a father and do that to his own daughter!

I saw that on the news last night and it made me sick . This is just so outrageous. I hope that father gets locked up for the rest of his life and even that would be too good for him.