Husband 'kept wife locked in cellar for 16 YEARS while he lived upstairs with another woman'

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:27 PM on 28th January 2011

A Brazilian man has been arrested on suspicion of keeping his wife locked in a squalid cellar for 16 years while he lived with another woman in the same house.

Police found Sebastiana Aparecida Groppo, 64, in the cellar of the house in the city of Sorocaba in Sao Paulo state on Wednesday acting on a tip-off.

The floor of the roughly 130-square-foot cellar was littered with faeces and dead cockroaches.

'She was found without clothes, wrapped up in a blanket,' Sorocaba police inspector Ana Luiza Salomone said, adding that the windows had been shuttered and were covered in mould.

Joao Batista Groppo and the woman who had been living with him were both arrested on charges of illegal imprisonment. The husband, also 64, told police that he had locked up his wife of 42 years because she was mentally ill and aggressive.

Salomone said Groppo had apparently kept his wife imprisoned for two periods totalling 16 years, the second coming after 2003 when their son died in an accident.

The wife showed signs of mental problems that could have been caused by her captivity, Salomone said, but showed no signs of being aggressive and had no serious health problems.

Groppo and his companion could face up to eight years in prison.



Figure 1: Under arrest: Handcuffed Joao Batista Groppo talks to the press following his arrest on suspicion of illegal imprisonment.
Figure 2: Bustling metropolis: The city of Sorocaba in Sao Paulo state where Sebastiana Aparecida Groppo was allegedly held captive.
Source: Daily Mail