A woman was kidnapped and locked in a basement where she was repeatedly raped and forced to drink from a dog bowl during a three-month ordeal inside a house of horrors in the Czech Republic.
The 27-year-old still had a chain around her neck when she managed to flee from the house in the village of Sirem, around 30 miles northwest on the capital Prague, on February 16.
She had her head shaved and was described as looking like someone ‘from a concentration camp’, neighbours said.
Her alleged torturer, a 40-year-old truck driver named only as Karel N, is said to have lived outside the village but driven to the derelict property where the woman, said to have been known to him, was imprisoned.
Doorbell cameras captured the terrified woman running from the house in the middle of the night and desperately seeking refuge with neighbours.
One told local outlet iDNES.cz: ‘I was woken up by the doorbell at three in the morning. I looked out the window and there was a young woman standing there. I was terribly scared, she looked miserable.
‘She was wearing leggings and a hoodie pulled over her head. She had a chain wrapped around her neck. She was moaning that she had been trapped in the basement since November and was begging for help.
‘I woke my husband up and we took her inside. I locked everything, I was afraid someone was following her.’
Another added: ‘She had no hair and a thick chain with a huge lock around her neck; she was just skin and bones.
‘She said he shaved her head and rarely gave her anything to eat, just sometimes a little bread and water from a bowl, like a dog.
‘He stripped her naked, chained her up, beat her, raped her and did other crazy things to her.’
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Read more:
- Introducing This Is Not Right: Metro’s year-long violence against women campaign
- Yvette Cooper’s message to abusers and rapists: The streets don’t belong to you
- Remembering the women killed by men in 2024
- Stories about violence against women don’t make an impact – this is why
- Men – we need your help to end violence against women
- What to do if your loved one is at risk from domestic abuse
Local reports say the suspect is known to police having previously lured a 22-year-old woman to his home in Kryry, Louny, and abused her in 2021.
That victim managed to escape after a day and Karel was later jailed for three years for charges of rape and deprivation of liberty.
He was freed early by a judge who ruled three years was too harsh because Karel would not carry out any similar attacks.
Prosecutors who opposed bail for the suspect said: ‘He is a person who often travels outside the Czech Republic, so the reason for his detention was found to be a fugitive.
‘At the same time, not all witnesses were heard and there is a risk that he could influence their statements and also repeat his criminal activity.’
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