Josef Fritzl boasts about imprisoning daughter and wonders whether his wife will forgive him
Josef Fritzl has committed some awful crimes in his life, to the point where he is regarded as one of the most well-known sex monsters on the planet.
The now 87-year-old from Austria, imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth when she was just 18 in 1984.
Fritzl lured his daughter into the family home's cellar where he drugged and raped her repeatedly.
The convicted sex offender installed cramped living spaces including a kitchen and a bathroom in the basement.
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When his wife Rosemarie questioned Elisabeth's disappearance, he told her she had run away to join a cult.
As a result of his wicked crimes, Elisabeth had seven children conceived by Fritzl, with one sadly dying shortly after birth.
While three remained captive in the cellar, the other three children were brought upstairs to live with Fritzl and his wife.
Fritzl told Rosemarie that the children were Elisabeth's, but they were left on the doorstep as she was unable to care for them.
The disturbing case only emerged in 2008 when Elisabeth managed to reach police in the town of Amstetten, Austria.
She told them she had been held captive by her father for 24 years.
In 2009, Fritzl was sentenced to life behind bars for incest, rape, coercion, false imprisonment, enslavement and the negligent homicide of one of his infant sons.
But while his wicked ways have left him in prison for his remaining days, Fritzl is still making his voice heard in his memoir.
And as you'd expect, he feels no remorse about the dreadful things he has done.
"At first it was just a mind game I played. But I got used to it. The idea, which had previously seemed so absurd, so monstrous to me, took shape," he wrote in his memoir, which was published in Germany last week.
"One day I knew what I had to do. All that remained was to wait for the right opportunity. On that rainy Saturday morning, the time had come. The thought had become action.
"Those around me noticed my inner restlessness . . . I toyed with the idea of exposing everything and fleeing justice abroad. Still, it wouldn’t be easy.
"The public opinion of the entire world would portray my act as a unique monstrosity, that of a beast," Fritzl added.
Elsewhere in the book, Fritzl spoke about the idea that his wife could someday forgive him.
He wrote: "Even though everything was so long ago, my wife is still inside me.
"More than before. You probably become more sensitive with age. I’m worried about how she thinks about everything now.
"It would be nice if she would come and visit me. I think it’s time to talk about what happened. To make a clean slate, so to speak."
Callum Jones