Woman, 47, kept in room for 18 years

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-16  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

THE case of a woman whose family allegedly kept her locked in a room in their house in southern Italy for 18 years drew parallels in the Italian media at the weekend with abuse cases that have surfaced recently in neighboring Austria.

Media reported shocking details of the life of the 47-year-old woman, who was freed last Friday by police from a room in her family's home, allegedly because she had become pregnant out of wedlock.

The woman was in the psychiatric ward of a Naples hospital on Saturday, the ANSA news agency reported.

Police arrested her brother and sister and put her ailing, widowed, 80-year-old mother under house arrest. The three were being investigated on suspicion of mistreatment and kidnapping.

Police said an anonymous tip led them to the house, along a country road on the outskirts of the rural town of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, near Naples.