Die Schwestern von Linz

Three sisters, aged 7, 11 and 13, were kept prisoner by their mother for a period of seven years until 2005. The news was not revealed until 2007.

The girls are not now expected to ever recover from the ordeal of being confined away from natural light, in a home filled with excrement a metre high and no running water. The girls, Viktoria, Katharina and Elisabeth, were rescued by police after a concerned neighbour threatened to sue the local council, after reporting his concerns several times.

The girls were severely malnourished and sensitive to light when released. They do not speak normally but have evolved a language of their own, based on German.