Pictured: 54-year-old ‘Prepper’ conspiracy theorist arrested after six British children under the age of five were rescued from an abandoned Austrian wine cellar
- Exclusive: First photo of suspected Holocaust denier Tom Landon, 54, revealed
- He was arrested by police after six British children were found in a cellar
This is the first photo of a man arrested by police after the discovery of six British children living in an Austrian cellar.
Conspiracy theorist and suspected Holocaust denier Tom Landon, 54, was detained after he used pepper spray on police officers and social workers who came to question him.
Landon’s British wife, 40, has also been questioned by authorities and although both have since been released, their children, all under the age of five, have been taken into care.
Officials said the couple lived in a network of cellars below the remote village of Obritz, 60 miles north of the Austrian capital Vienna and closer to the border with the Czech Republic.
PICTURED: Tom Landon, who was arrested in Austria after six British children were found in an abandoned cellar
The man was arrested after six British children were found living in an Austrian cellar below the remote village of Obritz, 60 miles north of the Austrian capital Vienna. Pictured: The road where it is believed Landon had his cellars
Landon – who has self-published more than 20 books, is considered a ‘preparer’ – a state of mind in which a person prepares for a ‘major disaster or cataclysmic event’.
Titles include Red Sow, Dirty Justice, The Judas Principle and The Destructive Effect of Information Technology on Human Intellectual Development.
He is also said to be a Reichsburger, a group of right-wing extremists who believe that the German Empire still exists as it did before World War II and that the current German state is insignificant.
MailOnline checks reveal that Landon is the director of several London-based companies involved in information technology and book and software publishing.
He also wrote a musical about Austrian rock star Falco – known for his 1985 hit Rock Me Amadeus – who died in a car accident in the Dominican Republic in 1998.
Pictured: A camera monitoring the winery on a road where Tom Landon is believed to have taken six children
Landon, who at the time was also living on the Caribbean island, claims he found the body and the singer’s true cause of death has been covered up.
Austrian officials learned of his erratic behavior from concerned neighbors and attempted to question him on Thursday, but he reportedly reacted violently and attacked them.
Local mayor Erich Greil said: ‘There are cameras all over the outside of the buildings where he and his family are and below are a series of wine cellars where it is said they lived.’
“Neighbors became concerned because they heard children’s voices and so the police and social services were called.
Austrian officials learned of his erratic behavior from concerned neighbors and attempted to question him on Thursday, but he reportedly reacted violently and attacked them. Pictured: an entrance to one of the cellars
“Neighbors became concerned because they heard children’s voices and so the police and social services were called,” the local mayor said.
“He hasn’t been here very long and he said the building was bought by a British company. He said he lived in England for a few years before settling in Obritz.
Mr Greil also told local Austrian media that Landon had “wanted a cellar for each child” and that police are now searching records for details of children who were not registered in Austria.
A law enforcement source told MailOnline: “The man has been questioned and has now been released. Now, together with Interpol, we are working to identify any children we believe may have been born in the UK.
“The man and his wife, who are British, had certainly lived in the UK and had connections there. The children were temporarily cared for by the local authorities.
“The prosecutor was also told that the man attacked officers with pepper spray and he faces charges for that.”
There is no suggestion that any of the children were sexually abused, but it drew comparisons to the infamous case of Josef Fritzl, 87, who was jailed for life in 2009 after babysitting his daughter Elizabeth in a cellar for 24 years.
