'I dreamt of cutting off his head if I'd had an axe'

Austria: The following is an extract from the interview with Natascha Kampusch in News , an Austrian weekly magazine, in which…

Austria: The following is an extract from the interview with Natascha Kampusch in News, an Austrian weekly magazine, in which she spoke about her life since her escape.

"I have settled back very quickly into social life. Amazing how fast that has happened. I'm living now with other people, and have no problems with it.

"I asked myself again and again why, among all the millions of people, did this happen to me. I always thought I wasn't born to be locked up and let my whole life be ruined. I felt like a chicken in a hen battery. Every day I was up in the house and did something with him, little daily [chores]. But right afterwards I was sent back down again. To sleep. To live . . . It was especially bad when his mother came to visit at weekends.

"I missed social life. I had a need for people, for animals. But I didn't have the feeling of loneliness because I had a lot of time to spend with myself [. . .] by reading and working. I helped him build his house.

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"Sometimes I dreamt of cutting off his  kidnapper's] head if I'd had an axe [. . .] I was very frustrated when I heard people were searching for me with a digger. They were looking for my body. I got the desperate feeling that I had already been written off.

"I was always trying to figure out when the time was ripe [to escape]. But I couldn't risk [a failed] escape. He suffered from strong paranoia and was chronically mistrustful. A failed attempt would have meant never getting out of the cell again. I had to build up his confidence.

"[My escape] was totally spontaneous. I ran out through the garden gate and became dizzy. I felt for the first time how weak I really was. I ran panic-stricken into an allotment and approached people. They just shrugged and walked on by. I went into other allotments, jumped over a fence, panicky like in an action film. Then I saw an open window with a woman in the kitchen and I asked her to call the police. It worked."

Asked if she believed in God: "Well, I'm very ambivalent. Yes, a little. I prayed a bit, but not later [during the captivity]. The criminal [kidnapper] also prayed. I thought, that can't be. I thought, 'Even Fidel Castro prays'.

"I missed my cats like crazy.

"I told my mother we should go on a cruise ship together. I also told her I want to take the train to Berlin. I also want to see London, or New York. . ."

Asked whether she had illnesses during her captivity: "Everything possible. Racing heart, heart palpitations, disturbed rhythm [. . .] I got dizzy, couldn't see, everything was blurry. It was probably caused by a lack of nutrition.

"I plan two projects. One is for women in Mexico who have been abducted from their workplaces and brutally tortured and raped. I want to campaign against this so it never happens again. And second, I want to help the hungry in Africa." Ms Kampusch also told Kronen-Zeitung newspaper of her escape:

"It seemed like eternity to me, but in reality it just took 10 to 12 minutes. I just ran into this garden area, jumped over several fences, ran in circles, panicking, to see if there was anybody, anywhere. I rang the bell at this house but somehow it didn't work. Then I saw somebody was pottering about in the kitchen.

"The woman was so stunned she didn't immediately react [. . .] She didn't let me in [. . .] I told her that he could kill us. Despite this the woman was very concerned I would step on her lawn." Asked if there were other attempts to escape: "Yes, there were. Once I wanted to jump out of the car. But he held me and then drove the car so that I was bounced against the sides of the car."

  • Reuters