AUSTRIA:AUSTRIAN MAN Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and fathered her seven children, has said he is "no monster" but that he is addicted to incest.
Ten days after his shocking double life was exposed, Fritzl began a publicity offensive from his prison cell yesterday with the help of his media-savvy lawyer Rudolf Mayer.
He locked up the 18-year-old Elisabeth in August 1984 in his "kingdom" - a secret cellar he had built under his home - to "save her" from the outside world.
"I knew Elisabeth didn't want me to do what I did to her. I knew that I was hurting her," said Fritzl, through his lawyer, to Austria's News magazine. "It was like an addiction. In reality, I wanted children with her."
A year after imprisoning her, he said he began raping her, resulting in seven children: one died shortly after birth and the eldest, 19-year-old Kerstin, is now fighting for her life in hospital.
The 73-year-old said it was his "dream" to have another family with Elisabeth, whom he described as an "incredible mother". Fritzl, described by his sister-in-law as a "tyrant", said he began planning his crime when his teenage daughter began "breaking the rules": going to bars, drinking and smoking.
"I needed to take precautions," he said. "I needed to create a place in which I could at some point keep her away from the outside world, by force if necessary."
Fritzl said he was aware from early on that he had trapped himself with actions which he admits were "not right".
But when his wife and the authorities believed his explanation for Elisabeth's disappearance - that she had run away to join a cult - his upstairs-downstairs life became "a matter of course". He told News that he was "not the monster depicted in the media".
"When I went into the dungeon, I brought flowers for my daughter and books and toys for the children," he said. "I watched adventure videos with them while Elisabeth cooked our favourite dish. Then we all sat around the table and ate together."
Fritzl said he belonged to the "old school" of discipline. "I grew up in the Nazi times and that meant there needed to be control and the respect of authority," he said. "I suppose I took on some of these old values with me into later life, subconsciously naturally."