Detlef S, 48, a.k.a. “the German Fritzl” goes on trial Tuesday accused of raping his stepdaughter and fathering eight of her children.
Charges of incest with related offences were committed between 1987 and 2010. Also, the repeated rape of his step-daughter, known by the pseudonym Natalie and now is 28. He, too, is charged with abusing his biological son and daughter.
DNA tests revealed that the man was the father of at least 7 of Natalie’s children. An eighth child, whom he may have fathered, is believed to have died according to a spokesman for the court in Koblenz.
Charges point to friends paying to have sex with his two daughters per the indictment. He denies all the charges.
Prior to his arrest, Detlef S lived with his 52-year-old wife; in a village in western Germany, and up to 15 children. Four of the children reportedly came from his wife’s first marriage, four belonged to them both and seven were the result of incest.
The village priest, Joachim Triebel-Kulpe, denied that Fluterschen turned a blind eye. “There was speculation, of course, and whispers in the village. I never would have imagined that something like this would happen in our community,” he explained.