Decades of abuse

For over three decades, a now 69-year-old retiree raped his daughter, producing three handicapped children with her, two of whom died as children, according to the public prosecutor in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg.

The prosecution has indicted the man for around 500 cases of rape, which began when his now 46-year-old daughter was 12 or 13. The man has admitted to having sexual intercourse with his daughter, but claims it was consensual.

The case came to the attention of authorities at the beginning of the year when the daughter, who has a previous criminal record, told her trusted probation officer about her relationship with her father. She had been sentenced to probation after accusing a doctor for the handicap of one of her children and then blackmailing his wife.

'Difficult to comprehend'

Antje Gabriels-Gorsolke, the senior public prosecutor, tried to explain the victim's decades-long silence as the consequence of isolation and high psychological pressure.

"It's very difficult to comprehend but the father was very authoritarian and constantly accompanied the woman when she drove the car or went shopping and forbid social contact," she said.

The woman lived with her parents until recently and was raped several times in their bedroom as well as in her own room. There is no evidence that her siblings were abused, said Gabriels-Gorsolke.

The victim's mother knew about some of the incidents of rape, according to prosecutors, but those cases can not be prosecuted since they exceed the statute of limitations.

Author: Spencer Kimball (dpa, AFP)
Editor: Martin Kuebler