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VIENNA, Aug 25, 2011 (AFP) - Austrian police announced Thursday they had arrested an 80-year-old man suspected of sexually abusing his two daughters over more than 40 years, keeping them virtually locked up in his house.
The man was arrested at the prosecutor's request on suspicion of assault, duress, rape, and abuse and neglect of minors or defenceless persons among other offences, Alois Lissl, police chief for Upper Austria told the Austria Press Agency (APA).
The suspect, who was detained as a flight risk, has been sent to a jail in Ried im Innkreis.
Upper Austria police announced earlier Thursday that the unnamed 80-year-old was suspected of abusing his two daughters, now aged 53 and 45, physically and sexually from 1970 until May 2011.
He also prevented them from having any social contact outside the home and regularly threatened them with weapons and even death, the police said in a statement.
The case reached the authorities in early May after a social worker notified the police.
The man had tried to rape his oldest daughter, who pushed him away and he fell. Unable to stand up or call for help, he was eventually found by the social worker, whom the daughters had called two days later, police said.
For years, the man and his daughters shared just one room of their house in the district of Braunau, near the German border, police added.
Neither the suspect's and victims' names, nor the town where the events happened have been released.
The two women testified that they had to sleep on a small wooden bench and that their mother -- who died in 2008 -- was also regularly abused by her husband.
"They were evidently locked up in their own house, hardly ventured out into the open," Lissl told Austrian television ORF.
"They received (outside) care but were evidently so intimidated that they kept quiet about these acts their entire life."
"The alleged victims exhibit some mental deficiencies," local police chief Martin Pumberger told APA.
He added the suspect had denied all the accusations against him.
As an interim measure, the man had already been banned from returning to his home for at least six months, according to a prosecution spokesman.
Before his arrest, he was staying in a nursing home in Braunau, after a spell in hospital for treatment after his fall, police spokeswoman Hermine Prokesch also told AFP.
The case eerily brings to mind an earlier Austrian incest story, that of Josef Fritzl, who locked his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children with her, one of whom died.
Fritzl was sentenced to life in prison in March 2009.
<한글기사>
아버지, 친딸 41년간 가두고 성폭행
(빈 AFP=연합뉴스) 오스트리아에서 친딸을 수십 년간 가두고 성폭행해 세상을 놀라게 했던 '요제프 프리츨 사건'을 연상케 하는 범행이 또다시 드러났다.
오스트리아 경찰은 25일(현지시각) 독일 국경지대 브라우나우에서 1970년부터 올 5월까지 41년간 친딸 두 명을 신체적으로 학대하고 성폭행한 혐의로 80세 남성을 체포했다고 밝혔다.
현재 53세와 45세인 두 딸은 어릴 때부터 외부 접촉이 금지된 채 폭행과 협박, 성폭행을 당한 것으로 알려졌다.
이들은 경찰 조사에서 자신들이 작은 나무 벤치 하나에서 잠을 자야 했고 지난 2008년 숨진 어머니도 아버지에게서 학대를 당했다고 진술했다.
'제2의 프리츨'을 연상시키는 이번 사건은 이 남성이 지난 5월 자신의 큰딸을 또다시 성폭행하려다 딸이 밀치는 바람에 넘어져 머리를 다쳤고, 이틀 동안 움직이 지 못한 상태에서 딸들이 부른 사회복지사에 의해 발견되면서 알려졌다.
경찰은 "두 딸이 외부의 보살핌을 받기도 했지만, 겁에 질린 상태여서 아버지의 이런 행동에 침묵할 수밖에 없었다"며 이들이 정신 질환으로 치료를 받고 있다고 밝 혔다.
체포된 용의자는 관련 혐의를 모두 부인하고 있지만, 검찰 대변인은 이미 임시 조치로 적어도 6개월 동안 그가 자신의 집으로 돌아가는 것을 금지했다고 말했다.
오스트리아에서는 지난 2008년 친딸을 24년간 감금하고 성폭행해 7명의 자녀까지 낳은 요제프 프리츨 사건이 터져 여론을 경악시킨 바 있다.
