'I'm no monster... I could have killed them': Sex dungeon father makes deluded plea for sympathy

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The Austrian, who locked up his daughter in his cellar for 24 years and subjected her to repeated rapes, claimed he had been unfairly represented by the police and the media.

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Josef Fritzl and wife Rosemarie on their 50th wedding anniversary in 2006

Elisabeth Fritzl was imprisoned by her father in a dungeon under their home

He argued that he should be praised for not killing Elisabeth, 42, and their children Kerstin, 19, Stefan, 18, and five-year-old Felix.

Kerstin is still critically ill in hospital from a mystery illness. It was her mother's determination that she should get treatment which led to the discovery of Fritzl's secret life.

"Kerstin would not be alive today if it wasn't for me," he said in a statement issued by his lawyer. "I have made sure that she got to a hospital.

"I could have killed all of them. No one would have ever known about it.

"I could have killed them and then sealed the place with concrete. It would have been very easy. I have not been treated fairly, it has all been one-sided."

Yesterday he was interviewed for the first time by the public prosecutor in advance of a hearing in front of a judge on Friday. Under Austrian law it could be months before he is charged.

He is said to be coping well with prison but refuses to leave his cell for fear of being attacked by other prisoners.

The retired electrical engineer is expected to be charged with imprisoning Elisabeth and fathering seven children with her. He could also face a murder charge in relation to a baby who died three days after birth.

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Fritzl as a young man in 1954

The hospital where Elisabeth Fritzl and her children are staying in Amstetten

Kerstin, Stefan and Felix were imprisoned since their birth until police released them on April 26 while the other three, Lisa, 16, Monika, 14 and Alexander, 12, lived with Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie upstairs.

Police are opening up other rooms in the cellar beneath his home in Amstetten but stressed they did not believe they were linked to the windowless labyrinth which became home to the secret family.

The Austrian authorities admitted they may have missed opportunities to uncover the crimes sooner.

Justice minister Maria Berger said they had shown a "certain gullibility" in accepting Fritzl's claim that Elisabeth had joined a sect to explain her disappearance.

Steps leading down to the dungeon where Frizl kept his incest family