Victims kept captive for years

Elisabeth Fritzl, Austria, 2008

Josef Fritzl sexually abused his daughter for 24 years in a basement below their family home in Amstetten, Austria. Elisabeth gave birth to seven children during the ordeal, but escaped when she was allowed to attend hospital.

Amanda Berry, Gina Dejesus and Michelle Knight, Ohio, 2013

Ariel Castro separately kidnapped three women in the early 2000s and kept them inside his house near downtown Cleveland, Ohio, for about a decade. Amanda Berry escaped and phoned the police. Castro, 52, was found dead in his cell after being sentenced for aggravated murder, kidnapping and rape in 2013.

Elizabeth Smart, Utah, 2002

Elizabeth was abducted from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, Utah, at age 14. She was taken by Brian David Mitchell to his camp in the foothills near the Smart family home, where she was forced into a polygamous marriage. After being freed she launched the Elizabeth Smart Foundation that works to prevent crimes against children.

Fusako Sano, Japan, 1990

Fusako was snatched at the age of nine on her way back from a school baseball game in her home town of Sanjō. Her abductor, 28-year-old Nobuyuki Satō, kept her for nine years and two months on the upstairs floor of the apartment he shared with his mother, who eventually notified the authorities.

‘Genie’, California, 1970

Genie is the pseudonym for an American child who was isolated by her father from the age of about 20 months to 13 years after he believed that she was severely mentally disabled. She was kept in a home-made straitjacket and strapped to a child’s toilet or a crib, where she was unable to move her arms and legs.