'Polish Fritzl' jailed for 10 years

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A Polish man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after holding his daughter captive for six years, raping her repeatedly and fathering two sons with her. 

The trial of Krzysztof Bartoszuk, 47, began last March after the conclusion of the case in Austria against Josef Fritzl, who was found guilty of imprisoning his daughter in a dungeon for 24 years and fathering her seven children. The parallels led the Polish media to dub Bartoszuk the "Polish Fritzl."

The entirety of the Polish trial took place behind closed doors to protect the daughter, now 23, and other family members.

Reporters and TV cameras were only allowed in the court briefly on Thursday to hear part of the verdict read out by Judge Izabela Komarzewska.

Images from the court room broadcast on TVN24 showed Bartoszuk, a dark-haired man with a mustache, chewing gum and fidgeting as he stood in a green jacket as the judge spoke.

Janusz Sulima, a spokesman for the court in Bialystok, told The Associated Press that the court found Bartoszuk guilty of multiple counts of rape, sexual acts with a minor and physical and psychological abuse against the daughter and other family members, among other charges.

Prosecutors had sought a 15-year sentence, arguing that Bartoszuk used unusual violence and extreme cruelty. But Sulima said the court imposed the lesser sentence after determining there was a lack of evidence of extreme cruelty or unusual violence in his abuse of his daughter.

"In this case, the defendant's offenses were limited to threats. He would threaten to kill his daughter, or to tell people she was the one forcing him or provoking him to have sex. But he didn't use violence as such," Sulima said. "She was intimated by his threats and in the end did not protest, though she never gave her consent."

Bartoszuk admitted having sex with his daughter but insisted it was consensual. As he walked out of the court, he told reporters he plans to appeal, the news agency PAP reported.

Bartoszuk has been in custody since 2008, when his wife and daughter came forward with the allegations. The daughter told police at the time that her father had raped her repeatedly while keeping her captive for six years in a room with no door handles.

She was let out of the room on occasion, including for the births of her two sons in hospitals, police said at the time.

The first boy was born in 2005 and the second in 2007. Both times, the daughter told police, she was accompanied by her father, who then forced her to give the children up for adoption.

- AP