Lodger: I knew of Fritzl sexual abuse

VIENNA, May 3 (UPI) -- A lodger who lived in the Austrian home of Josef Fritzl for years has divulged he had been told by a neighbor Fritzl had been raping his own daughter.

Sepp Leitner, who stayed with Fritzl for four years in the 1980s, alleged a female neighbor told him Fritzl had routinely been raping his daughter Elisabeth in the family's cellar where he held her for years, The Times of London reported Saturday.

"Elisabeth was repeatedly raped by her father. She could not take it to live at home anymore and tried to escape," Leitner alleged.

"She had taken sleeping pills and went to Vienna. But the police found her and they, or her father, brought her back home."

Police have accused Fritzl of keeping his daughter in his cellar for 24 years, along with three of the seven children he fathered with her.

The Times said since being arrested in April, Fritzl attempted to downplay his alleged crimes by saying he was simply taking care of his family.

"I took care of them all," Fritzle reportedly told police. "I meant well."