Prosecutors in southwestern Poland say a man has been arrested on charges of imprisoning and physically and mentally abusing a woman for more than five years with “particular cruelty.”
Prosecutors in the city of Legnica say the abuses began in January 2019 and lasted until last week in the village of Gaiki, near Glogow.
They are only identifying the suspect as 35-year-old Mateusz J., in line with Poland’s privacy laws.
They say the woman, now 30, was kept in an unheated building with no running water or toilets. There he repeatedly abused her sexually and physically and gave her limited access to food and drink.
They say he humiliated and controlled the woman, kept her in isolation and brought her out with only a hood over her eyes.
Local news channels in Glogow saying that he had kept the woman in a shed on his family farm. His elderly parents reportedly told local news that they were unaware of the situation.
According to myGlogowthe victim was reportedly impregnated by Mateusz J. and taken to a hospital to give birth and then give the child up for adoption.
“I couldn’t tell the truth to the doctors. I was scared, and he threatened me that if I complained it would get even worse,” the victim said, according to the news agency.
The man was finally arrested after he took the woman to a hospital on Tuesday for treatment of a dislocated shoulder. At the hospital, the woman alerted the staff about her situation.
The man has been interrogated and denies any crime, the prosecutor says. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison.
The case evokes that of Josef Fritzlan Austrian man who held his daughter captive for over 20 years and raped her thousands of times and fathered seven children with her. Earlier this year, a court governed Fritzl could be moved from psychiatric detention to a regular prison.