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Captivity is one of the loneliest experiences. If the experience includes being used for sex by your father – one of the people who is supposed to protect your innocence – then the ordeal is unimaginable.

Why this woman was incarcerated in her late teens is a question that can be answered only by her father. Children and teenagers who fall prey to the monstrous activities of parents and/or carers amount to about 1 per cent of the population. It devastates their lives, their self-esteem and their relationships.

One thing that the molesters of children like is to preserve a veneer of respectability and decency. But for children to hear footsteps on the landing, knowing that their father, whom they may still love and honour, is about to violate them, produces in them a terror and revulsion that can last a lifetime.

At least four members of this family already knew of the monster in their midst - they were in captivity – but did his wife know? The police are adamant that she did not, despite the difficulties that Josef F must have faced in keeping his activities secret. Take, for example, the simple practicalities of feeding and clothing four people.

But at the same time Mr F appears to have continued a warped duty of care, providing a television and ensuring that one of his children was taken to hospital – furthermore that her mother became available to help the doctors. Was his conscience catching up with him? Was the burden of supporting these four becoming too great? Had he started something 24 years ago not knowing where it would all lead?

One thing for certain is that this family is in a midst of a trauma that will take years to unravel. Some minds may be broken beyond repair. Others may find ways to heal.

For Elisabeth F, years of torment have come to an end, but I don’t think that she will ever recover. For her three children who have grown up in the cellar, recovery will be dependent on how they were treated by their grandfather and their mother. The youngest, at 5 years old, will stand a better chance.

For the three children brought up by their grandparents the shock and sorrow of discovering that they have been living a lie and the crimes that have been unfolding literally under their feet will be traumatic in the extreme. For Mrs F it will depend on whether she was a victim or a conspirator.

A concern for psychologists working with this family will be how to gain trust enough to help these very damaged people. This will take time and patience as they give them the environment in which they can start to tell their story, to heal their wounds and to learn to live in an alien environment.

They are likely to suffer from flashbacks and night terrors and find themselves overwhelmed by the amount of sensory information bombarding their minds.

The children who lived a “normal” life are likely to be numb and confused, unable to focus or concentrate on anything as their minds try to process the enormity of what they have learnt. It is likely that they will experience symptoms such as a constant replay of events and hyper-arousal, with associated anxiety and irritability or anger.

The information processing therapy known as EMDR (eye-movement desensitisation and reprocessing) is very helpful in processing distressing memories. It is the mental equivalent of an indigestion tablet. It “breaks the loop” and processes traumatic information previously “stuck” and immovable, allowing the mind to settle enough to use other forms of psychotherapy to help to nurture self-esteem, develop coping strategies and build a future.

— Lesley Perman-Kerr is a chartered psychologist who specialises in dealing with psychological trauma and has worked with survivors of captivity and of sexual abuse

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