'Captive daughter' investigation may take months

The investigation in Poland of a man whose daughter claims that he imprisoned and raped her – and fathered her two children – might take months, a Polish prosecutors’ office spokesman said today.

Officials were still trying to track down the two boys that the 21-year-old woman told them her father conceived with her, in order to compare their DNA to that of the 45-year-old suspect.

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said yesterday he would introduce a law requiring the chemical castration of paedophiles.

The proposal met with widespread support among other politicians today, but some experts have warned that it is not always effective, while the Gazeta Wyborcza daily newspaper suggested it was unconstitutional.

The family moved during the period when the alleged crimes took place and leads were being pursued in the family’s current home village, Grodzisk, and their previous residence of Pasikurowice, prosecutors’ spokesman Adam Kozub said.

“This is a very complicated investigation and will require many opinions from experts,” Mr Kozub said.

He said he expected the investigation to take beyond the usual three months, but did not have a specific estimate of how long it might last.

The woman’s story bears some similarities to the case of Austrian Josef Fritzl, who, investigators say, confessed to holding his daughter in a cellar for 24 years, repeatedly sexually abusing her and fathering her seven children.

In Poland, police detained the suspect last Friday in the eastern city of Siedlce after his wife and daughter came forward with the allegations.

The police believe he was trying to flee the country.

His wife has told Polish media her husband used to order her to watch television whenever he was going into the girl’s room, closing it and taking the door handle out.

The man severely beat her and the daughter when they asked that he stop the visits, the wife said.

She also claimed the daughter did not reveal who fathered the two boys, even though being pregnant at age 17 was a “shock” to her.