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05. 02. 10. - 12:00

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05. 02. 10. - 12:00

Daughter welcomes jail for Polish Fritzl

croatiantimes.com

A Polish Elisabeth Fritzl who was imprisoned for six years and repeatedly raped by her father who made her pregnant twice in 2005 and 2007 has spoken of her ordeal after her father was jailed for 10 years.

Krzysztof Bartoszuk, 47, pleaded not guilty to the charges of rape, sexual acts with a minor and abuse. He claimed that his daughter had been a willing sexual partner.

The legal case at a Bialystok court started in March last year and the news of the sentence was welcomed by victim Alicja Bartoszuk, now aged 22, who suffered repeated rapes, beatings and imprisonment until she found the courage to escape after reading about the ordeal of fellow incest victim Elisabeth Fritzl. Josef Fritzl had imprisoned and raped her for 24 years, making her pregnant seven times - once with twins.

She took the abuse to protect her family - her mother from beatings and her five year old brother from even darker threats,

NShe told the court how her father took her virginity as a 14-year-old schoolgirl and how she bore two children by the monster who dubbed her "my little prostitute,"

She said: "I was 14 when daddy first raped me. He told me that if I said a word to anyone, he would beat me, my mother and my little brother."

"One evening he came to my room. He told mummy that he wanted to listen to some music with me. He shut the door behind him and he stood over me.

"I will never forget his sneering smile. I was suddenly scared and he ordered me to get undressed.

"I kind of smiled stupidly, not really believing what was happening. I hoped it was a joke, a really stupid joke.

"But he grabbed me and threw me onto the sofa bed. He squeezed my neck so tightly that I couldn't breathe. With his other hand he tore off my knickers and then he raped me.

"It hurt so much. Blood was pouring out. It seemed like the nightmare lasted for ever. He was disgusting. I was disgusted with myself. But when he'd finished, he said that if I ever told anyone he would hurt me even more," she added.

Polish police arrested Alicja's car mechanic father in 2008 after she finally found the courage to report him .

When she first turned to her mother Teressa for help at the family home in the tiny rural community of Pasikurowice,, south west Poland, her enraged father crushed any hope of rescue.

"I told mummy. She was furious with my father. But he beat her. Mummy said she would divorce him and she promised me that me and her and my brother would run away from him as far as we could. That I would be safe.

"But it was all just words. My father quickly terrified her into submission. He punched and kicked all thought of divorce out of her head.

"From then on, he felt he didn't need to hide anything and would come to my room two or three times a week."

"I tried to escape from home, but he always found me. When he saw that he couldn't keep me in, he took the door handle off the door.

"He imprisoned me in my room like a slave. For a few days he didn't even give me any food. Mummy felt sorry for me but she couldn't do anything. My father was stronger, physically and emotionally. He had absolute power over us," remembered Alicja.

Mum Teressa, 43, said: "I am so sorry that I was not able to protect my daughter. I noticed - even before the first rape - how he would touch her where you shouldn't.

"But he always said, 'I have a right to her,' as if she was a thing, an object for him.," said Teressa.

"I remember very clearly the night when it began,. After work, my husband washed himself and said he deserved a bit of relaxation and that he was going to listen to some music with Alicja. He disappeared for two hours.

"When she told me what had happened, my husband said he would kill us if we told anyone about it. He called my daughter his little prostitute. My heart was breaking with pain and helplessness.

"But where could we go? My parents are dead, I'm an only child. We didn't know anyone," she added.

Alicja's first baby by her father arrived in 2005. The second came two years later. He refused to allow an abortion in case it drew attention to is vile secret.

"A few weeks after he first raped me, I got pregnant. He didn't even care. That's the way it works, he said. He carried on beating and raping me.I was terrified.

"I had mixed feelings about that baby. My father and mother decided that I must give birth. There was no question of an abortion," explained Alicja.

"When the labour pains began, my father took me to hospital but he was with me every second. There was no moment when I could have told someone whose the baby was.

"And straight after the birth, he forced me to leave the baby in the hospital.

"As soon as we got back home, it began all over again. My father came to my room several times a week. It was like a bad dream.

"He kept telling me I was a prostitute and that was why I deserved what he was doing to me. And that was how I felt," she added.

She even tried to escape her agony with suicide.

"Once I took some tablets, I wanted to poison myself. I took a whole handful, but unfortunately it wasn't enough. They managed to save me," she explained.

The following year the family moved back to where her father grew near a tint rural community called Grodzisk in north east Poland

"We moved into a dilapidated wooden house and we avoided contact with the locals. I felt too ashamed, to meet anyone and my mother and brother were too afraid of my father.

"We lived off state social benefits, at 60 zloty (about 15 pounds) a month," said Alicja.

Just a few months later - in January 2007 - she gave birth to another boy fathered by her dad, Again she was forced to hand him over for adoption.

"I've often thought about whether I would ever want to find my children or not. I decided that I don't want to. They are not my children," Alicja said., "They're his."

But it was love that finally gave Alicja the courage to confront the dad who had turned her into his personal sex slave.

By last Summer her father thought she was so cowed, so brutalised that she would never try to escape and he sometimes allowed her to leave the family home without him.

"I met a man and I thought he would help me end this hell. When my father found out I was meeting with someone he was furious and bundled me off to Belgium.

"He raped me, hit me and starved me. He said I had to earn my food. After a few days I managed to make contact with Poles living in Belgium and they helped me escape.

"I went back to my boyfriend and we had a barbecue with my mum to celebrate," recalled Alicja.

But her evil father hadn't given up yet.

"That night my dad came. He broke in with an axe and my boyfriend was so scared he didn't even squeak and he never contacted me again.

"There were two men with my dad. And his brother was waiting in a car in the woods. They took me to my grandmother's house and shut me up there.

"I thought they were going to kill me," cried Alicja.

She escaped again and fled to her mother who insisted they must go to the police.

"After six years something inside me snapped. I went with my mum to the police station here we made statements for several hours.

"When my father found out, he tired to escape abroad. I was afraid that the police wouldn't find him, that there would still be no end to this hell

"But they got him.," said Alicja. "When I saw them taking him a way in handcuffs, it was such a relief. I hope I never see him again."

"Whenever I tried to run away he would find me and say: I'm on top," recalled Alicja,

"Now I'm on top. Let him rot in jail."

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