Cellar incest mom talks about ordeal

AMSTETTEN, Austria, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- Elisabeth Fritzl, who was locked in an Austrian basement for almost 25 years and bore seven children by her father, says he raped her three times a week.

Josef Fritzl also regularly threatened to abandon her and three of her children in the cellar, leaving them to starve if they didn't follow his commands, Elisabeth said in her first public comments, The Times of London reported Wednesday.

Austrian authorities say Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, her 19-year-old daughter and sons aged 18 and 6 were imprisoned in a windowless cellar in the family's home in Amstetten while her three other children were allowed to live upstairs with their father and his wife.

In comments first published in the British tabloid The Sun, Elisabeth Fritzl told Judge Andrea Humer in an interview that she believed Josef Fritzl's threats to abandon them and described how she and the children tried to lead normal lives

"When (Josef) went away we led our own lives," she reportedly said. "When he was here it was all silence. He was just all-powerful."