(Newser)
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Kindling memories of the infamous Joseph Fritzl case, Austrian police have arrested a man on suspicion of raping and imprisoning his daughters for more than 40 years, the BBC reports. The 80-year-old denies wrongdoing, but authorities say one of his daughters fled during an attempted rape and reported his alleged crimes. Now 45 and 53, police say both daughters have "mental deficiencies."
A social worker reportedly found the father collapsed on his floor two days after his daughter knocked him over and escaped in May. He received care in a hospital and was declared mentally alert, so police arrested him yesterday and promptly relocated him to jail. Police believe he threatened the girls with a stick and a pitchfork, intimidated them into keeping quiet, and forced them to sleep on a bench in their house in the village of St. Peter am Hart. Unlike the Fritzl case, there are no reports of children fathered with either daughter.
