Dad ROBERTO ROJAS SMILED when he got life in prison and escaped the death penalty in the state of Texas. AFTER SLAUGHTERING FOUR HUMAN BEINGS. No wonder the poor surviving mom and her surviving family members are outraged.
http://www.themonitor.com/articles/jury-54195-roberto-rojas.html
Roberto Rojas granted life
August 27, 2011 12:25 AM
Elizabeth Findell
The Monitor
EDINBURG—It seemed Amelia Flores couldn’t stand to hear the verdict.
Flores, the lone survivor of a 2008 rampage that left her three young children and mother dead, rushed from the courtroom Friday night after hearing that a jury had decided against giving her ex-husband Roberto Rojas the death penalty.
Rojas, 45, was convicted last week of killing his mother-in-law and the children and shooting Flores, 27. The youngest child, 2-year-old Osiel, was Rojas’ son and Silvestre and Mauro Garza, ages 6 and 8, were his stepsons.
Jurors sentenced Rojas to life in prison without parole.
Emotions were heated from the Flores family after Judge Aída Salinas Flores (no relation) read the decision. After Amelia Flores left, her brother Panchito Flores, 24, approached jurors with a heated statement.
“I can’t believe you had mercy on him when he had no mercy on my nephews,” he said. “You’re showing everyone in the world that you can kill your whole family, your own son, and still live.”
Rojas showed little emotion when he walked from the room, except to wave to his family and give them a slight smile.
Jurors had been instructed to answer up to two questions to determine the sentence. First, they had to decide whether it was probable that Rojas will commit a violent act in the future. Only if they answered yes to that would they answer the second question of whether there were any mitigating factors that would warrant life in prison rather than the death penalty.
The jury answered yes to the first question, but at least ten of them agreed on the second question that some factors should save Rojas from death. The group reached the consensus after more than seven hours of deliberation.
Prosecutors had tried to persuade the jury that the only appropriate punishment for Rojas was death as they wrapped up closing arguments for sentencing Friday morning.
"There is nobody more dangerous than the man that sits there," Assistant Criminal District Attorney Michelle Puig said as she gestured to Rojas.
But defense attorney Sergio Valdez argued there was no evidence that Rojas would commit another violent act. He pulled out dual easels to argue that the emotional response surrounding the horror of the crime should be discounted as based on bias, prejudice or sympathy.
"(Amelia Flores) said ‘my kids are no more’ and she cried, and you cried with her," he said. "You sympathized. But that is not evidence (that Rojas will harm someone again)."
Valdez described Rojas as a well-behaved prisoner who never tried to escape and had every incentive to continue that pattern. His jail records included a request to change cells and a request for a Bible.
Rojas wanted to take responsibility for his crimes and wanted the maximum sentence, but the jury couldn’t decide based on that and were compelled to address the two specific questions, Valdez said. He said the very fact that Rojas had requested the maximum sentence could be seen as a mitigating factor for life in prison.
"There’s an irony in the (question), and it’s a tragic irony," Valdez said.
Puig responded that the violence the night of the murders was more than enough to indicate a probability of future violence.
"If you think about what happened that day, you know what he’s capable of," she said. "We need to remember the crime. . .Where was your remorse then?"
Puig characterized the defense as trying to distract jurors from thinking about the night of the murders. She said the considering the family’s pain should not be discounted as bias or prejudice.
"It’s the aftermath," she said.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Failing victims of violence (Denver, Colorado)
Excellent piece by Jessica Lenahan, whose children were murdered back in 1999 by their father, SIMON GONZALES, after the police refused to enforce a protection order.
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_18759538#ixzz1WLTqDTEp
Guest Commentary: Failing victims of violence
By Jessica Lenahan
Posted: 08/28/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT
Twelve years ago, I found myself in an unthinkable situation. My husband, Simon Gonzales, whom I had known since childhood, became a possessive, controlling man I didn't recognize. When he became abusive, I feared for my safety and that of our children. I obtained a restraining order against him, and trusted the law to protect us.
But that trust was destroyed on June 22, 1999. That night, my estranged husband kidnapped our daughters — Rebecca, Katheryn and Leslie — from our front yard. Panicked, I repeatedly called the Castle Rock police for help. Over the next 10 hours, the police refused to go after Simon or try to find my daughters. Hours later, my husband drove up to the police station and opened fire. He was killed in the shootout, and the bodies of my girls were found shot to death in the back of his truck.
There wasn't even a proper investigation to determine whether my girls were killed by their father or in the hail of bullets at the station. I still don't know for certain the exact cause, time and place of my children's death.
In the hours leading up to the shootout, it became clear that my order of protection was worthless, and that the police didn't regard domestic violence as potentially lethal. I was told "the girls were with their father," that I "shouldn't worry," and that I should "give it a few hours." Meanwhile, the police responded to a fire-lane violation, looked for a lost dog, and took a two-hour dinner break.
I sued the town of Castle Rock for failing to enforce the restraining order and took my case to the U.S. Supreme Court. But the court ruled my constitutional rights had not been violated by the failure to enforce the restraining order.
I felt utterly abandoned, but I wasn't done fighting. Along with attorneys from the ACLU, I filed a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, arguing that the police failure to enforce my restraining order, and the U.S. courts' failure to provide a remedy, constituted violations of international human rights law. After a 12-year process, the commission made public on Aug. 17 a landmark decision in which it found the U.S. had violated my human rights and those of my three children.
The commission's report said the Castle Rock Police failed in its legal obligation to protect women and children from domestic violence, and emphasized the government has a duty to protect domestic violence victims by taking steps to ensure their safety, including the enforcement of restraining orders.
In the United States, an estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year. Many of these women will, like I did, place their faith in the justice system. To tell these women they have no right to rely on their government to protect them is outrageous and cruel. Restraining orders filed by victims of domestic violence must always be enforced, and a 911 call to enforce those orders must mean something. Policies regarding domestic violence must change so no one else's rights are violated.
It is shameful that it took an international human rights commission to point out that policies meant to protect domestic violence survivors are dangerously inadequate. Despite everything I've lost, I still have hope that our government will use this ruling as an opportunity to make things right, to provide the protection and accountability that will prevent a tragedy like I suffered from occurring again.
Jessica Lenahan is an advocate for battered women and children.
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_18759538#ixzz1WLTqDTEp
Guest Commentary: Failing victims of violence
By Jessica Lenahan
Posted: 08/28/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT
Twelve years ago, I found myself in an unthinkable situation. My husband, Simon Gonzales, whom I had known since childhood, became a possessive, controlling man I didn't recognize. When he became abusive, I feared for my safety and that of our children. I obtained a restraining order against him, and trusted the law to protect us.
But that trust was destroyed on June 22, 1999. That night, my estranged husband kidnapped our daughters — Rebecca, Katheryn and Leslie — from our front yard. Panicked, I repeatedly called the Castle Rock police for help. Over the next 10 hours, the police refused to go after Simon or try to find my daughters. Hours later, my husband drove up to the police station and opened fire. He was killed in the shootout, and the bodies of my girls were found shot to death in the back of his truck.
There wasn't even a proper investigation to determine whether my girls were killed by their father or in the hail of bullets at the station. I still don't know for certain the exact cause, time and place of my children's death.
In the hours leading up to the shootout, it became clear that my order of protection was worthless, and that the police didn't regard domestic violence as potentially lethal. I was told "the girls were with their father," that I "shouldn't worry," and that I should "give it a few hours." Meanwhile, the police responded to a fire-lane violation, looked for a lost dog, and took a two-hour dinner break.
I sued the town of Castle Rock for failing to enforce the restraining order and took my case to the U.S. Supreme Court. But the court ruled my constitutional rights had not been violated by the failure to enforce the restraining order.
I felt utterly abandoned, but I wasn't done fighting. Along with attorneys from the ACLU, I filed a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, arguing that the police failure to enforce my restraining order, and the U.S. courts' failure to provide a remedy, constituted violations of international human rights law. After a 12-year process, the commission made public on Aug. 17 a landmark decision in which it found the U.S. had violated my human rights and those of my three children.
The commission's report said the Castle Rock Police failed in its legal obligation to protect women and children from domestic violence, and emphasized the government has a duty to protect domestic violence victims by taking steps to ensure their safety, including the enforcement of restraining orders.
In the United States, an estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year. Many of these women will, like I did, place their faith in the justice system. To tell these women they have no right to rely on their government to protect them is outrageous and cruel. Restraining orders filed by victims of domestic violence must always be enforced, and a 911 call to enforce those orders must mean something. Policies regarding domestic violence must change so no one else's rights are violated.
It is shameful that it took an international human rights commission to point out that policies meant to protect domestic violence survivors are dangerously inadequate. Despite everything I've lost, I still have hope that our government will use this ruling as an opportunity to make things right, to provide the protection and accountability that will prevent a tragedy like I suffered from occurring again.
Jessica Lenahan is an advocate for battered women and children.
Dad accused of sexually abusing 15-year-old daughter (South Bend, Indiana)
Once again, we have a case where UNNAMED DAD waited until Mom was at work--and safely out of the way--before he abused the child. He then threatened to kill the child if she told. Typical....
http://articles.southbendtribune.com/2011-08-25/news/29929836_1_abuse-father-child
Father accused child sex abuse
August 25, 2011
SOUTH BEND — A 15-year-old girl told police Tuesday that her father has been sexually abusing her since the age of 6 at their southeast side home.
She also said her older sister had been abused by their father, according to a police report.
The alleged incidents reportedly happened while the mother was at work.
The victim said she did not tell police earlier because the father allegedly threatened to kill them if they told.
No arrests have been made. The St. Joseph County Family Violence/Special Victims Unit is investigating.
http://articles.southbendtribune.com/2011-08-25/news/29929836_1_abuse-father-child
Father accused child sex abuse
August 25, 2011
SOUTH BEND — A 15-year-old girl told police Tuesday that her father has been sexually abusing her since the age of 6 at their southeast side home.
She also said her older sister had been abused by their father, according to a police report.
The alleged incidents reportedly happened while the mother was at work.
The victim said she did not tell police earlier because the father allegedly threatened to kill them if they told.
No arrests have been made. The St. Joseph County Family Violence/Special Victims Unit is investigating.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Raped daughter who endured life of torture released from jail for murder of father (Brazil)
Another one of those cases that just leaves you speechless. The father was SEVERINO PEDRO DE ANDRADE.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2030540/Mother-12-sensationally-released-jail-murder-husband-judge-learns-father-raping-nine.html
Mother-of-12 sensationally released from jail for murder of husband after judge learns it was father who had been raping her since she was nine
Woman raped by own father during 28-year ordeal
Prosecutors say she suffered 5,000 instances of abuse
Mother-of-12 hired two hitmen to kill her own father
By Chris Parsons
Last updated at 4:51 PM on 26th August 2011
A Brazilian housewife has been sensationally cleared of having her father killed - after it emerged he had raped and beaten her and made her have 12 of his children.
Severina Maria da Silva was abused by her father Severino Pedro de Andrade since the age of nine during a 28-year ordeal in the poverty stricken Brazilian region of Pernambuco.
The 44-year-old woman was jailed for a year after two men stabbed 63-year-old Severino Pedro de Andrade to death in the family home in north-east Brazil in 2005.
Ms Silva said she was forced to live as her father's wife, and was driven to hire hitmen when she realised her abuser wanted to start sexual relations with his an 11-year-old who was both his daughter and granddaughter.
But after six years Ms Silva was freed within four hours of a court hearing yesterday after state prosecutors asked the jury to acquit her.
In a truly horrific case which has shocked Brazil, it emerged in court that Ms Silva gave birth to the first of her father's children at 15.
Jose Edvaldo da Silva, prosecutor for the state of Pernambuco, told the court Ms Silva had been the victim of an estimated 5,000 crimes including rapes as well as physical and psychological assaults over a period of 28 years.
The abuse had begun when Ms Silva was nine, apparently with the consent of her mother who shared the bed with the two of them.
The first child was one of many who died over the years due to genetic problems, lack of medical care and violence from her father.
Only five of the children survived, now aged between 12 and 19, including two with severe disabilities.
At some stage it is thought Ms Silva's mother left the family home.
By 2005 Ms Silva had become worried her 11-year-old daughter would be subjected to the same ordeal as her, so hired two hitmen to kill her father.
The dead man's sister told the court the whole family knew of her suffering but were too afraid to stop him themselves.
Ota Maria da Concei, 86, said: 'He was a very violent. We were afraid he would hit or even kill us. He had already beaten her a lot, from young as a dad and then also as a husband.'
Ms Silva's defence team are now set to sue the Brazilian state, but amazingly all the 44-year-old is now looking for is to be reunited with her mother and to get on with her life.
Ms Silva said: 'God willing, my mother will talk to me again.
'I believed they would find me innocent but you have to be ready for anything so I was afraid. But life will be different from now on.'
Psychologist Wedia Martins, who works for a local women's rights group and had been following the case, told Diario de Pernambuco: 'Nobody is more of a victim in this than Severina herself.
'She already had a history of attempting to run away from home and suicide.
'Her vulnerability only changed when she noticed her dad was getting closer to the daughter and did not want her history to repeat itself.'
The killers, Edon Francisco Amorim and Denisar dos Santos, have been sentenced to 18 and 17 years for murder respectively.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2030540/Mother-12-sensationally-released-jail-murder-husband-judge-learns-father-raping-nine.html
Mother-of-12 sensationally released from jail for murder of husband after judge learns it was father who had been raping her since she was nine
Woman raped by own father during 28-year ordeal
Prosecutors say she suffered 5,000 instances of abuse
Mother-of-12 hired two hitmen to kill her own father
By Chris Parsons
Last updated at 4:51 PM on 26th August 2011
A Brazilian housewife has been sensationally cleared of having her father killed - after it emerged he had raped and beaten her and made her have 12 of his children.
Severina Maria da Silva was abused by her father Severino Pedro de Andrade since the age of nine during a 28-year ordeal in the poverty stricken Brazilian region of Pernambuco.
The 44-year-old woman was jailed for a year after two men stabbed 63-year-old Severino Pedro de Andrade to death in the family home in north-east Brazil in 2005.
Ms Silva said she was forced to live as her father's wife, and was driven to hire hitmen when she realised her abuser wanted to start sexual relations with his an 11-year-old who was both his daughter and granddaughter.
But after six years Ms Silva was freed within four hours of a court hearing yesterday after state prosecutors asked the jury to acquit her.
In a truly horrific case which has shocked Brazil, it emerged in court that Ms Silva gave birth to the first of her father's children at 15.
Jose Edvaldo da Silva, prosecutor for the state of Pernambuco, told the court Ms Silva had been the victim of an estimated 5,000 crimes including rapes as well as physical and psychological assaults over a period of 28 years.
The abuse had begun when Ms Silva was nine, apparently with the consent of her mother who shared the bed with the two of them.
The first child was one of many who died over the years due to genetic problems, lack of medical care and violence from her father.
Only five of the children survived, now aged between 12 and 19, including two with severe disabilities.
At some stage it is thought Ms Silva's mother left the family home.
By 2005 Ms Silva had become worried her 11-year-old daughter would be subjected to the same ordeal as her, so hired two hitmen to kill her father.
The dead man's sister told the court the whole family knew of her suffering but were too afraid to stop him themselves.
Ota Maria da Concei, 86, said: 'He was a very violent. We were afraid he would hit or even kill us. He had already beaten her a lot, from young as a dad and then also as a husband.'
Ms Silva's defence team are now set to sue the Brazilian state, but amazingly all the 44-year-old is now looking for is to be reunited with her mother and to get on with her life.
Ms Silva said: 'God willing, my mother will talk to me again.
'I believed they would find me innocent but you have to be ready for anything so I was afraid. But life will be different from now on.'
Psychologist Wedia Martins, who works for a local women's rights group and had been following the case, told Diario de Pernambuco: 'Nobody is more of a victim in this than Severina herself.
'She already had a history of attempting to run away from home and suicide.
'Her vulnerability only changed when she noticed her dad was getting closer to the daughter and did not want her history to repeat itself.'
The killers, Edon Francisco Amorim and Denisar dos Santos, have been sentenced to 18 and 17 years for murder respectively.
Dad arrested for murdering daughters in car fire; media blames visitation "squabble" (Potsdam, Germany)
So, how nice to know that the German media is just as ignorant as its counterparts around the world. When you have a father who "allegedly" drugged his daughters before murdering them in a car fire, the cause is not a visitation "squabble." What you really have is a seriously unbalanced controlling father who committed a DOUBLE MURDER, and a mother who did her best to protect her children by trying to prevent the father from gaining access to them.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1659368.php/Danish-father-arrested-for-car-fire-deaths-of-girls
Danish father arrested for car-fire deaths of girls
Aug 26, 2011, 16:37 GMT
Potsdam, Germany - A 40-year-old Danish father was arrested Friday at a German hospital on suspicion of murdering his own daughters in a car fire two weeks ago.
Authorities acted hours after toxicology evidence emerged that 9-year-old Line Sofie and 10-year-old Marlene Marie had been given sleeping pills before the car caught fire.
The father remained Friday in hospital where he is recovering from his own burns in the incident and skin grafts.
Prosecutor Tom Koepping said a magistrate went to the hospital ward and told the father he was now in legal custody. Two policemen will permanently watch him in hospital until he can be moved to a jail.
Police suspect a dispute between the divorced parents was the motive for the killing. Danish newspapers say they had squabbled over visitation rights.
Drug traces were found in blood in the gutted small car although the girls were burned beyond recognition, proving the girls had been sedated in advance.
Police have said they are certain the girls were alive when the fire broke out in the car in a forest near Berlin.
The father alerted police after the blaze and though burned, led them to the site. He claimed to detectives the fire was an accident.
Koepping said the toxicology results and a police reconstruction of the blaze threw 'major doubt' on the father's claim.
Prosecutors said it would take two to three months to complete an inquiry and then to indict the father. They said Germany would hold the trial, although Denmark would technically also have jurisdiction since both the suspect and victims were Danish nationals.
Hospital spokewoman Angela Kijewski said doctors forecast the man would be medically fit next week to be moved to a jail and be kept in either a cell or a sick bay
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1659368.php/Danish-father-arrested-for-car-fire-deaths-of-girls
Danish father arrested for car-fire deaths of girls
Aug 26, 2011, 16:37 GMT
Potsdam, Germany - A 40-year-old Danish father was arrested Friday at a German hospital on suspicion of murdering his own daughters in a car fire two weeks ago.
Authorities acted hours after toxicology evidence emerged that 9-year-old Line Sofie and 10-year-old Marlene Marie had been given sleeping pills before the car caught fire.
The father remained Friday in hospital where he is recovering from his own burns in the incident and skin grafts.
Prosecutor Tom Koepping said a magistrate went to the hospital ward and told the father he was now in legal custody. Two policemen will permanently watch him in hospital until he can be moved to a jail.
Police suspect a dispute between the divorced parents was the motive for the killing. Danish newspapers say they had squabbled over visitation rights.
Drug traces were found in blood in the gutted small car although the girls were burned beyond recognition, proving the girls had been sedated in advance.
Police have said they are certain the girls were alive when the fire broke out in the car in a forest near Berlin.
The father alerted police after the blaze and though burned, led them to the site. He claimed to detectives the fire was an accident.
Koepping said the toxicology results and a police reconstruction of the blaze threw 'major doubt' on the father's claim.
Prosecutors said it would take two to three months to complete an inquiry and then to indict the father. They said Germany would hold the trial, although Denmark would technically also have jurisdiction since both the suspect and victims were Danish nationals.
Hospital spokewoman Angela Kijewski said doctors forecast the man would be medically fit next week to be moved to a jail and be kept in either a cell or a sick bay
Dad imprisoned, raped daughters for over 40 years (Brannau, Austria)
One of the few cases where I'm left just speechless. The father is only identified as GOTTFRIED W.
Seriously, how could a social worker totally miss this situation for so many years, even if the "girls" weren't talking?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2030449/Austria-abuse-cases-Sisters-raped-41-years-father-slowly-went-mad.html
Pictured: The horror basement where sisters were raped for 41 years by their father and slowly went mad
Women were born healthy but became mentally ill because of abuse, new evidence reveals
Victims kept in dingy basement surrounded by wood and tools
Neighbours knew father as 'stern, rigid' master of his house
Women were only seen outside once - visiting mother's grave
By Allan Hall
Last updated at 6:04 PM on 26th August 2011
This is the disgusting dungeon where an Austrian man violated his own daughters in a nightmare spanning 15,000 days and nights.
'If you fight back, then I will kill you,' Gottfried W. told his children Christine, 53, and Erika, 45, who were forced to sleep at night on a wooden shelf while their father, now 80, snoozed in a feather bed.
Amid farming implements, old oil drums, wood, cement sacks and filth he violated his own flesh and blood with a depravity on a par with Josef Fritzl.
His wife Berta, 85, passed away in 2008. She too was a victim of the former council labourer's sadism, beaten like them with a stick and poked with a pitchfork.
The girls became mentally ill over the years - not a condition they were born with, but a result of the torments they suffered at his hands.
Police say their mother, also beaten into submission, made them promise on her deathbed not to tell anyone about what their father did to them.
Other rooms in the sprawling house near Braunau-am-Inn - the birthplace of Adolf Hitler - were kept spic and span.
But the girls were forced to live in squalor, sleep in the kitchen and use a commode instead of the lavatory in the house.
Forty years of abuse ended in May this year when Gottfried tried to have his way with Christine one more time and she finally snapped.
She hit him with a milk jug on the head. He fell to the floor and cracked his head again.
For two days he was unable to move and police say they hoped he would die.
Finally the women, who were seen from time to time by a social worker - but who were so conditioned by his threats never to expose his vile treatment of them - called her in.
She telephoned for an ambulance for him and the women were taken into care. But still they said nothing.
It was only in June when they opened up to a Red Cross worker about what had happened to them.
It was this volunteer who called in the police.
Austria - still coming to terms with the kidnapping of schoolgirl Natascha Kampusch in the 90s and the Fritzl incest saga - is stunned at another terrible family crime being exposed within its borders.
Gottfried, known as Friedl to neighbours, was an archetypal Austrian father of the old school. He was stern, rigid, master of his house and keeper of the secrets that went inside it.
He controlled all social contact of his daughters with the outside world.
The only time they were seen out together was with him visiting the grave of their mother.
Gottfried has been moved to a prison in nearby Ried while the investigation against him continues; his daughters are undergoing psychiatric therapy in a clinic.
He faces charges of rape, unlawful imprisonment, cruelty, assault and making threats to kill. He was moved from an OAP home where he had been treated since his injuries in May to the jail on Thursday.
Seriously, how could a social worker totally miss this situation for so many years, even if the "girls" weren't talking?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2030449/Austria-abuse-cases-Sisters-raped-41-years-father-slowly-went-mad.html
Pictured: The horror basement where sisters were raped for 41 years by their father and slowly went mad
Women were born healthy but became mentally ill because of abuse, new evidence reveals
Victims kept in dingy basement surrounded by wood and tools
Neighbours knew father as 'stern, rigid' master of his house
Women were only seen outside once - visiting mother's grave
By Allan Hall
Last updated at 6:04 PM on 26th August 2011
This is the disgusting dungeon where an Austrian man violated his own daughters in a nightmare spanning 15,000 days and nights.
'If you fight back, then I will kill you,' Gottfried W. told his children Christine, 53, and Erika, 45, who were forced to sleep at night on a wooden shelf while their father, now 80, snoozed in a feather bed.
Amid farming implements, old oil drums, wood, cement sacks and filth he violated his own flesh and blood with a depravity on a par with Josef Fritzl.
His wife Berta, 85, passed away in 2008. She too was a victim of the former council labourer's sadism, beaten like them with a stick and poked with a pitchfork.
The girls became mentally ill over the years - not a condition they were born with, but a result of the torments they suffered at his hands.
Police say their mother, also beaten into submission, made them promise on her deathbed not to tell anyone about what their father did to them.
Other rooms in the sprawling house near Braunau-am-Inn - the birthplace of Adolf Hitler - were kept spic and span.
But the girls were forced to live in squalor, sleep in the kitchen and use a commode instead of the lavatory in the house.
Forty years of abuse ended in May this year when Gottfried tried to have his way with Christine one more time and she finally snapped.
She hit him with a milk jug on the head. He fell to the floor and cracked his head again.
For two days he was unable to move and police say they hoped he would die.
Finally the women, who were seen from time to time by a social worker - but who were so conditioned by his threats never to expose his vile treatment of them - called her in.
She telephoned for an ambulance for him and the women were taken into care. But still they said nothing.
It was only in June when they opened up to a Red Cross worker about what had happened to them.
It was this volunteer who called in the police.
Austria - still coming to terms with the kidnapping of schoolgirl Natascha Kampusch in the 90s and the Fritzl incest saga - is stunned at another terrible family crime being exposed within its borders.
Gottfried, known as Friedl to neighbours, was an archetypal Austrian father of the old school. He was stern, rigid, master of his house and keeper of the secrets that went inside it.
He controlled all social contact of his daughters with the outside world.
The only time they were seen out together was with him visiting the grave of their mother.
Gottfried has been moved to a prison in nearby Ried while the investigation against him continues; his daughters are undergoing psychiatric therapy in a clinic.
He faces charges of rape, unlawful imprisonment, cruelty, assault and making threats to kill. He was moved from an OAP home where he had been treated since his injuries in May to the jail on Thursday.
Dad sentenced to 21 years for murder of 5-month-old son (Wichita, Kansas)
Dad JAMES THOMAS pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree murder before sentencing. No word here about the baby's mother.
INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT.
http://www.kwch.com/news/kwch-jab-wichita-father-sentenced-to-21-years-in-the-death-of-his-infant-son-20110826,0,3412380.story
Wichita father sentenced to 21 years in the death of his infant sonby John Boyd
KWCH 12 Eyewitness News
12:18 p.m. CDT, August 26, 2011
(WICHITA, Kan.)—
A Wichita father will spend 21 years in prison in the death of his infant son. James Thomas was sentenced Friday in Sedgwick County Court.
He pleaded guilty to Second Degree Murder in the death of his son, five-month-old Zereon Thomas in July of 2009.
Police say Thomas told them he dropped his son, but investigators say evidence showed the boy was abused.
INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT.
http://www.kwch.com/news/kwch-jab-wichita-father-sentenced-to-21-years-in-the-death-of-his-infant-son-20110826,0,3412380.story
Wichita father sentenced to 21 years in the death of his infant sonby John Boyd
KWCH 12 Eyewitness News
12:18 p.m. CDT, August 26, 2011
(WICHITA, Kan.)—
A Wichita father will spend 21 years in prison in the death of his infant son. James Thomas was sentenced Friday in Sedgwick County Court.
He pleaded guilty to Second Degree Murder in the death of his son, five-month-old Zereon Thomas in July of 2009.
Police say Thomas told them he dropped his son, but investigators say evidence showed the boy was abused.
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