Girl held in dungeon for a year was 'willing hostage'

Danielle Cramer, 15, was discovered on Wednesday after a sharp-eyed policeman noticed a hidden door.

She had been missing for almost a year.

Detectives in West Bloomfield, Connecticut, said Danielle could have sought refuge at the house after suffering sexual abuse at home.

Phone records showed she spoke regularly with her 41-year-old captor in the days before she went missing.

Police said Adam Gault had been investigated before over "inappropriate relationships" with young girls but no action had been taken.

Danielle had complained to police of abuse shortly before she went missing from her home.

Gault, his common-law-wife Ann Murphy, 40, and lodger Kimberly Cray, 26, appeared in court charged with conspiracy to commit unlawful restraint, conspiracy to commit risk of injury to a minor, and interfering with a police officer.

Gault's attorney told the court: "He has not been charged with kidnapping. There is no indication of the use of force."

Cray's attorney, Michael Georgetti, said after the hearing: "The girl was never molested in that house. There are no allegations of molestation.

"The missing girl did file a complaint with the Bloomfield Police Department over a year ago, claiming sexual and physical abuse in her own home.

"Nothing was done about it, and so she ran away."

Mobile phone records showed that Gault and Danielle talked often before she vanished.

"There was an inordinate amount of contact via cell phone and then, during follow ups, there were a lot of other circumstances that led us to believe there was an inappropriate relationship," said police chief Jeffrey Blatter.

Officers had questioned Gault several times, but he always denied any involvement in her disappearance.

Danielle was found in a locked room, about 3ft high, hidden behind a desk. Captain Blatter said it did not appear the girl lived in the room.

"There's some speculation that she actually has been out of the house, possibly out of the state.

"But it has clearly been a very interesting lifestyle from what we have seen so far, and definitely not very healthy.

"She was compelled to use a new name, to assume a new identity. She did assume a name that would suggest she was part of that family."