Girl, 12, rescued after being kept as a ‘sex slave’ for five years

A 12-year-old girl has been rescued after being kept as a ‘sex slave’ by her own stepfather for five years. Warning: Distressing

Warning: Distressing

A 12-year-old girl who had been kept as a sex slave by her own stepfather has been rescued.

The Spanish Civil Guard have arrested a 49-year-old man in Mallorca who they say kept the girl locked in a cellar hole under his desk for the past five years.

The man first travelled to an African country in 2015 pretending to be a philanthropist, where he met and lured the girl’s mother with the promise of a better life on the Spanish island, according to local news outlet Antena3.

The mother eventually accepted this offer and married the man before moving to Mallorca, bringing one her daughters with them.

The man is seen being arrested by police. Picture: Spanish Civil Guard

The man reportedly provided his new wife with a flat, while he lived separately with the 12-year-old, claiming that this set up would make it easier for them to bring over the rest of her daughters from Africa, according to TeleMadrid.

This meant he was able to sexually abuse his stepdaughter while she lived with him.

He is said to have used the threat of sending her and her mother back to Africa to keep her quiet about the abuse.

The girl was kept in a cellar. Picture: Spanish Civil Guard

This resulted in the young girl obeying him for fear of disappointing her family and not being able to give her sisters a better future in Spain, police said.

When the girl discovered her stepfather was in the process of bringing her sisters over from Africa, she reported what he was doing to her to the Hermanas Oblatas, a group of nuns known for their work in helping vulnerable women.

She hoped this would stop him from doing to her sisters what he had done to her. The group alerted police which lead to the man’s arrest on Friday.

The entrance to the "dungeon" like basement where the girl was held. Picture: Spanish Civil Guard

Authorities say they discovered evidence of child pornography in the man’s home during a search, as well as security camera on the ceiling and a collection of discs.

Distrssing footage also showed a dark and crammed crawl space hidden underneath a desk with a ladder leading to a dingy basement.

It is alleged this is where the young girl was kept by her stepfather for the past five years.

Eerie similarity

The shocking case is very similar to the 1998 kidnapping of Natascha Kampusch in Austria.

The then 10-year-old was snatched on her way to school and kept in a cellar by her abductor, Wolfgang Priklopil, for more than eight years.

During her captivity, the child was beaten, starved and forced into being his sex slave, before she finally escaped in 2006 while Priklopil was distracted.

The man kept security cameras in the home. Picture: Spanish Civil Guard

Authorities raid the home where the man kept his stepdaughter as a sex slave for five years. Picture: Spanish Civil Guard

She managed to garner the attention of a neighbour who called the police.

“I was told to clean his car,” Kampusch told Germany’s Bild newspaper about the day she escaped.

“He wanted to sell it and had told me to clean it really thoroughly and completely.

“I remember that I felt like I could eat a horse because I had to make him jam sandwiches for breakfast but got nothing myself.”

Her captor then became distracted as he took a phone call on his mobile phone. This was her chance to run to freedom.

“Previously he has observed me all the time,” she recalled.

“But because of the vacuum cleaner whirring in my hand he had to walk a few steps away to better understand his caller.”

Priklopil’s decapitated body was found on a train line in Vienna just hours after Kampusch had escaped.

Originally published as Girl, 12, rescued after being kept as a ‘sex slave’ for five years