See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Know No Evil

How can it be even remotely possible that a woman would not be aware that the father of her children has been abusing them? It's fair to say that a man who would abuse his children would also be in the habit of abusing his wife. That having been said, wouldn't it be natural for a mother to become more aware, as an abused woman, that her children would also be in danger of abuse? Women have an almost instinctual understanding of what occurs with their children.

One supposes that a degraded human being like Austrian Josef Fritzl represents the ultimate psychopath, a man so self-involved with his individual needs as he perceived them, that the pain and suffering he imposed upon his vulnerable family would be of no moment. When he spoke with the Austrian police after he was apprehended as a result of his vile behaviour becoming public knowledge, he claimed there was no abuse.

He cared well for his daughter and their children, he insisted. He saw to their daily needs. He ensured they had food, clothing, entertainment, the basics of life. That most basic of life's requirements, freedom, was withheld. With the lack of freedom went the spark of life itself. The opportunity for the children born of incest to become their potential, instead of caged and helpless beasts.

It has latterly been reported that this man, who horribly victimized his daughter over a period of twenty-four years left an indelible clue to his personality even before her birth. He was accused and found guilty of raping a 24-year-old woman, a nurse whose apartment he had broken into. He spent a year and a half in prison. His wife, the mother of their children, made the decision to stay with the man.

Offering him ample future opportunity to bully and belabour her, to impose a lifetime of servitude upon herself, and an intolerable lifetime of concubinage on her daughter whom her husband had been sexually molesting since she was eleven years of age. A mother of seven children must of necessity be a very busy woman. But any mother knows her children. Some may choose not to know, not to further complicate their lives.

But viscerally, there must surely be the knowledge that something is not right. A mother has a duty to come to the aid of her children. Instead she was complicit by her lack of curiosity and concern, in the destruction of her daughter's life. She agreed to accept the fiction of her daughter's disappearance, and the appearance of a succession of her daughter's children. A most trusting, albeit abused woman.

Most women would have compassion for a beloved pet animal, coming to its rescue at the uncaring hands of a life-companion. Causing them to address themselves to the reality of life with a monster who would seek to destroy the life of a harmless dog. Yet, this monster of a father held his daughter on a leash in an underground bunker, until her resolve to escape had been broken.

Most women - and children - living in a house with a multitude of rooms become familiar with all those living spaces. Attics and basements are no exception; they may not be pleasant places, but they are places to be explored, to become familiar with. Yet threats and demands were sufficient to allay any suspicions, and to keep a wife and mother from venturing where she was denied access.

Can any degree of normalcy result from the horrendously maimed lives and stunted opportunities afforded these poor people as a result of their dreadful exposure to such a beast?