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Original poster

Good God - this story beggers belief.

129 replies

Notalone · 27/04/2008 18:27

How could this have been allowed to happen?

uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080427/tts-uk-austria-abuse-62c696a.html

OP posts:
wannaBe · 29/04/2008 09:35

People do live double lives for years though. Bigamists who have more than one partner, and often they never find out about each other.

Lots of couples have separate bank accounts, his money and her money, so he could have been spending his money on groceries etc for her and his wife might never have known. How many people are there on mn after all who have separate finances and who don't really know what their other halves are spending their money on? And who feel that everyone is entitled to their privacy - this could have been just such a relationship but with far more sinister implications.

crackinggoodegg · 29/04/2008 09:45

Didn't he rent out rooms to lodgers? Extra groceries, building materials, etc wouldn't necessarily have been noticed and, of course, nobody would suspect a crime on this level so they wouldn't be suspicious. There's a short article on the BBC News website where a psychologist assesses the chances of the children living a normal life. As expected, the five year old has the most chance of adapting and the 18 and 19 year old are likely to experience severe difficulties with social interaction. I should think the world's a pretty scary place - seeing so many people, cars, everything.

Apparently the daughter/mother Elizabeth is in quite a frail state herself - only 42 but quite weak and thin with white hair. Poor woman, a life lost.

wannaBe · 29/04/2008 09:57

exactly. even if you suspected he was a bit dodgy, maybe that he had another woman etc, you just wouldn't think to suspect something on this scale.

oiFoiF · 29/04/2008 10:09

how can you slowly make a basement bigger when its next door to a cafe without anyone noticing??

its sickening

KerryMum · 29/04/2008 10:19

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oiFoiF · 29/04/2008 10:20

oh yes and on the radio just it said he will get about 15 years. 15 years dfor what he has done

iCod · 29/04/2008 10:21

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SixSpotBurnet · 29/04/2008 10:21

This makes me feel sad and sick .

KerryMum · 29/04/2008 10:21

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SSSandy2 · 29/04/2008 10:24

yes Elisabeth he imprisoned for 25 years, yet he gets just 15. He abused her for 31 years and then all the other people involved. Terrible but if he is 73 (?) now ,in 15 years he will be dead most likely

He will have better conditions in prison than Elisabeth and her 3 in the cellar had. At least he will be allowed a window and some access to the outside world. I don't know what a just punishment would be.

The newspaper says Elisabeth has aged well beyond her years. As you said below, her hair has turned white, no wonder. I do hope she has some true happiness ahead of her, all of them.

KerryMum · 29/04/2008 10:59

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lisalisa · 29/04/2008 13:24

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lisalisa · 29/04/2008 13:29

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Lilymaid · 29/04/2008 13:29

If the father/grandfather had died, the daughter and her children would have starved to death, locked in that cellar - the police chief said that the cellar was so deep that no one would have ever heard them.

wannaBe · 29/04/2008 13:39

they were talking about this on this morning and said that the cellar had been sound-proofed. .

for the older children, this was normality. So they wouldn't have thought to escape, wouldn't even have known what they were escaping to. .

WendyWeber · 29/04/2008 13:40

The father had put the fear of god into her that the door had explosives set to go off if she tried to get out.

Apparently the police believed her fear enough to make him go ahead of them to open it just in case.

MissGelly · 29/04/2008 13:43

Isnt he 74??? So if he gets 15 years, he doesnt get out until he's 90? I guess the assumption is, he'll be popping his clogs in jail.

Good.

Poor woman. I just saw online that she is rapidly deteriorating in health...with white hair (which is what I would look like myself with Loreal...)

ButterflyMcQueen · 29/04/2008 13:48

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wannaBe · 29/04/2008 13:49

let's hope so. that he'll die in jail that is.

it says

here
that the daughter and the other children are in surprisingly good health. But seems the eldest daughter is not doing so well. .

Wolfgirl · 29/04/2008 14:54

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MissGelly · 29/04/2008 15:07

(which is what I would look like myself with Loreal..)

That should read without L'oreal! I've been going grey since my twenties....

The Times says the police interviewing him have said he's in great shape and "extraordinarily sexually potent"... how do they know this? Is there a test you take?

KerryMum · 29/04/2008 17:29

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FAQ · 29/04/2008 17:31

but I thought the wife wasn't the girls mum (perhaps I've read it wrong??)

PuppyDogTails · 29/04/2008 17:36

From BBC: "the two sets of children were tentatively beginning to get to know one another, although two of the three children who had spent all their lives underground had a way of communicating that was "anything but normal""

PaninoPan · 29/04/2008 17:58

well, no, KM, "in all fairness" I'm not surprised if she wouldn't react like this.

Also, more so than 'the community', it is far more likely that other members of the family extended will be involved in providing means of support. It all means he wouldn't be able to leave the town, never go on holiday, never be in a position where he can't 'keep an eye' on the house. This needs help and other male family members, from what we know of abuse patterns, are surely deserving of more scrutiny.