VIENNA - An Austrian woman was jailed for five years yesterday for abusing her retarded adopted daughter for years and locking her in a coffin sized box for nights on end.
The woman, a former religious teacher named only as Ernestine K, aged 65, was charged with beating Maria, now 22, and frequently locking her in a garden shed with her hands tied and her mouth sealed with sticking plaster when she and her husband went out.
"She did not just torture Maria, but inflicted serious lasting damage," judge Peter Straub told the court. "For years she carried out torture ... in an inconceivable fashion."
Her husband Walter received a 20 month suspended sentence for abuse and incarceration and a family friend, Irmengard M, received a year's suspended sentence for failing to help the child.
The couple, who had had no children of their own, had adopted or fostered seven children over the years. One of them alerted the police last summer. The box was found stained with blood, excrement and urine.