“I grew up in a poor family. My father was a no-good scoundrel who always cheated on her and my mother threw him out of the house when I was four – and she was quite right to do so.

“After that, it was only the two of us.

“My mama was a strong woman. She taught me discipline, order and diligence. She enabled me good education and job training and she constantly worked hard and would take difficult jobs only to support the both of us.

“She was as strict as it was necessary. She was the best woman in the world. And I was her husband, in some way. She was the boss at home, but I was the only man in the house."

Commentary: a society that nurtures secrets

What society would accept the probability of three children being left on the doorstep of Josef F and grant him adoption?

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Background

• Why are child abuse scandals happening in Austria?

• Analysis: damage caused may never be healed

• Austria: sedate town is stunned by news

• Police search other Fritzl properties in Austria

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When asked whether he was sexually abused by his mother, he said: “No, never. My mother was decent, most decent. I loved her over everything.

“I have admired her. I admired her very much. But I have naturally not done anything. There was nothing there."

When asked whether there were any fantasies about her mother, he said: “Yes, probably, but I was strong, almost as strong as my mother, and I have therefore managed to suppress my urges.

“Later, I got older and I started going out and I had several amorous affairs. And than I found Rosemarie.

“She had nothing in common with my mother. But, however, there were some similarities.

“She was also wonderful, but wonderful in a different ways. She was much more shy and weaker than my mother.

“I always wanted to have many children. Not children that would have to, like I had, grow up alone, but children that would always have someone to play with. I had a dream about a large family ever since I was a little boy.

“And Rosemarie appeared to be a suitable mother. That motive [for marrying her] was not a bad one. And it is true: I always loved her and I will always love her."

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