Argentina’s ‘Fritzl’ arrested after fathering 10 kids with own daughter

MELBOURNE - In a case likened to that of ‘dungeon dad’ Josef Fritzl in Austria, a 62-year-old Argentinian man has been arrested for raping his own daughter over a 30-year period and fathering 10 children with her.

The victim, who is now 43 years old and cannot be named, has accused her father of raping her since she was 13 at the family home in Santa Fe Province, 600km north of Buenos Aires, reports News.com.au.

The judge hearing the matter described the case as ‘even worse than what happened in Austria’, a reference to Fritzl who imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and fathered seven children with her.

“The accused denied the allegations but DNA tests have confirmed paternity,” Judge Virgilio Palud told a local radio.

The man has been charged with repeated sexual abuse and incest, crimes that carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, the judge said.

In the Argentinan case, one of the 10 children born of the rapes has already died.

The victim said she waited so long to accuse her father because he had threatened her. She got her chance when he was arrested for the theft of some livestock.

The case is the second such shocking father-daughter abuse to emerge in Argentina in as many years.

Last year, the case of the ‘Monster of Mendoza’ gripped Argentina, when a 67-year-old man was accused of raping and fathering seven children with one of his three daughters. (ANI)