The Linz sisters, Viktoria, Katharina, and Elisabeth, are three women whose mother gradually withdrew them from school by creating and reinforcing a story that their father was a monster, to the extent that they believed they must absolutely avoid him.
Le Figaro reported that the children, then aged 7, 11, and 13, gradually became absent from school, and they remained at home of their own accord[1] in a smart, upper middle-class suburb.
Official records, such as those made available to a wider public by the Austrian Parliament and by local education authorities following the outcry after initial publication of the case, show that the sisters were frequently absent from school but took part in school events: Elisabeth until 2000, Katharina until 2003, and Viktoria until 2005.
[5][6] In November 2007, the mother Ingrid L. was found guilty of child neglect by the Carinthian State Court and sentenced to indefinite detention at a facility for dangerously disturbed offenders.
[7] The Supreme Court overturned the conviction in May of the following year and ruled on 26 October 2008 that the mother be released, with court psychiatrist Reinhard Haller testifying that she would neither pose a danger to society nor would there exist any danger of her again committing acts of a similar nature, given that she did not retain, and would never again have, custody of her children.