Dad 'abused daughters for 40 years'
Source: Agencies |
August 26, 2011, Friday
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AUSTRIAN police yesterday arrested an elderly man they suspect imprisoned, beat and sexually abused his two daughters over a 40-year period.
The 85-year-old Austrian, from a village in the north of the Alpine republic, kept the women locked in a small kitchen with only a narrow wooden bench as a bed, police said.
Hermann Feldbacher, a police spokesman in the province of Upper Austria, said: "Both women have mental deficiencies and suffered permanent beatings and violence. They became dependent on their father and were so withdrawn and mentally disabled they could not cope on their own and were unable to leave the house."
The man faces charges of rape and other sexual offences, abusing or neglecting minors and defenceless people, threatening behavior, coercion, and causing bodily harm, police said.
Authorities said the man has denied all charges.
Police alleged he repeatedly threatened to kill his daughters, now aged 53 and 45, and subdued them with weapons. Police said apart from wielding a gun, he also beat them with a cane and a pitchfork.
Police claim he abused his daughters from 1970 to this year in the village of St Peter am Hart near the German border. He also abused his wife, they said. She died in 2008.
The description echoes the case of Austrian Josef Fritz, who fathered seven children with his incarcerated daughter before being exposed and jailed for life in 2009 aged 74.
It is also reminiscent of the kidnapping of Austrian schoolgirl Natascha Kampusch, who escaped from her captor in 2006 after being held for eight years in a basement.
Police said they were still investigating whether the women in the latest case were mentally disabled all their life or whether their condition was a result of their treatment.
Feldbacher said: "It seems possible that after 40 years of abuse that they suffered psychological effects, but it could also be that someone who is already mentally disabled is the ideal victim for abuse."
The man barred his daughters from "any social contact," police said. The women have been placed in a care shelter and are receiving psychiatric treatment.
The sisters were discovered in May when the father tried to rape the elder daughter and she fought back, causing him to fall to the ground, police said. A social worker found the injured father two days later and reported the alleged abuse to police. He is now bedridden.
The 85-year-old Austrian, from a village in the north of the Alpine republic, kept the women locked in a small kitchen with only a narrow wooden bench as a bed, police said.
Hermann Feldbacher, a police spokesman in the province of Upper Austria, said: "Both women have mental deficiencies and suffered permanent beatings and violence. They became dependent on their father and were so withdrawn and mentally disabled they could not cope on their own and were unable to leave the house."
The man faces charges of rape and other sexual offences, abusing or neglecting minors and defenceless people, threatening behavior, coercion, and causing bodily harm, police said.
Authorities said the man has denied all charges.
Police alleged he repeatedly threatened to kill his daughters, now aged 53 and 45, and subdued them with weapons. Police said apart from wielding a gun, he also beat them with a cane and a pitchfork.
Police claim he abused his daughters from 1970 to this year in the village of St Peter am Hart near the German border. He also abused his wife, they said. She died in 2008.
The description echoes the case of Austrian Josef Fritz, who fathered seven children with his incarcerated daughter before being exposed and jailed for life in 2009 aged 74.
It is also reminiscent of the kidnapping of Austrian schoolgirl Natascha Kampusch, who escaped from her captor in 2006 after being held for eight years in a basement.
Police said they were still investigating whether the women in the latest case were mentally disabled all their life or whether their condition was a result of their treatment.
Feldbacher said: "It seems possible that after 40 years of abuse that they suffered psychological effects, but it could also be that someone who is already mentally disabled is the ideal victim for abuse."
The man barred his daughters from "any social contact," police said. The women have been placed in a care shelter and are receiving psychiatric treatment.
The sisters were discovered in May when the father tried to rape the elder daughter and she fought back, causing him to fall to the ground, police said. A social worker found the injured father two days later and reported the alleged abuse to police. He is now bedridden.
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