Content warning: this article discusses sexual abuse.
Josef Fritzl is applying to be released from prison and has written a chilling letter claiming he was 'actually a good father.'
In 1984, the Austrian criminal locked his daughter Elisabeth, then 18, in a secret cellar underneath the family home.
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During the next 24 years, he had seven children with his daughter, after repeatedly raping and abusing her.
One of the children passed away shortly after birth, but the others were taken upstairs, where they lived with Fritzl and his wife who was oblivious to the horrors taking place beneath her.
The nightmare finally came to an end when one of Elisabeth's daughters, Kerstin, became unwell in 2008.
Kerstin was taken to the doctors where she passed a note to medics explaining what was going on. Police were informed and the horrifying dungeon Elisabeth had spent more than half her life in was found.
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Fritzl was arrested and sentenced to life in prison at Stein Prison, the most secure psychiatric prison in Austria.
However, Austria's parole laws allow prisoners to apply for release after serving 15 years in prison.
The 88-year-old is now eligible for parole and is trying to prove that he is reformed.
Ahead of his parole hearing, Fritzl penned an apology for his crimes that'll send a chill down your spine.
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In the note, he said that he 'regret[s] all his actions deeply.'
"I was actually a good father," he wrote. "I specifically saved money to help with children’s education.
"I visited the children often, and helped them whenever they were given chores to do.
"I helped them and encouraged them to play musical instruments and so forth.
"I know with one of my daughters I made a mistake, and I regret that.
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"But apart from that, I believe that I was actually a good father."
He continued: "I’m not dangerous anymore. I’m the opposite.
"I don’t have any sexual desires for women, nothing like that at all.
"I have to say that in a strange way I am probably more free in prison than I ever was in the outside world, because, after all, I led a double life for ten years.
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"I’ve given all of that up now, and so with this I have been able to give up all of this pressure.
"I don’t have to pretend anymore and carry the weight of this hiding and pretending and secrets."
Fritzl's lawyers are fighting for his early release.
Speaking about her client, who has dementia, Astrid Wagner said that recent psychiatric tests show him to pose no threat to society.
She has asked the courts to consider moving him to a care home, where he can live out the remainder of his days.
She said it was clear to her that he felt 'honest, genuine, deeply felt remorse' for what he had done, for having 'destroyed the beautiful life he had by doing something to his family.'
Topics: Crime, World News
Bec Oakes