'It wasn't rape': German father who slept with his daughter 500 times from the age of 12 is jailed for less than THREE YEARS

Fathered three children during illicit relationship

Threatened to 'kill her if she told anyone'



A German father who had sex with his daughter nearly 500 times and had three children with her was jailed for less than three years after a court declared he did not rape her.



A judge in the case of Adolf B, 69, stunned women's and child protection rights groups by declaring that his incestuous relationship with his daughter over 30 years was 'by agreement' - even though he first molested her when she was only 12.



He was accused of brutalising his wife and children, stunning them into a long-term conspiracy of silence.



But the judge threw out the rape charge, saying there was insufficient evidence of violence to sustain the charges, and jailed him for just two years and eight months for incest.

Shamed: Adolf B. arrives at court charged with incest and bodily harm against his daughter, with whom he fathered three children

Prosecutors at the court in Nuremberg had demanded a 14-year sentence for the ordeal he inflicted on his daughter Renate.



In the media he was called the 'German Fritzl' in reference to the Austrian rapist Josef Fritzl who imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth for 24 years and fathered six children with her.



Adolf B was charged with 497 rapes committed over 34 years until his arrest in March this year.



He could not be charged with statutory rape - under the age of consent - because it occurred more than 20 years ago.

His daughter, now 46, had three children by him, two of whom have since died.

'She liked it,' he said of his sexual relationship with her although Renate testified otherwise. She said he threatened to kill her if she told anyone about what happened between them.

She told the court; 'He said; "Tell a soul and I will kill you. No matter where you go I will find you and kill you".'



The German woman lived in the family home along with her mother and siblings in Willmersbach, a village near Nuremberg.

Undercover: Adolf B attempts to hide his identity after he was sentenced for incestuous relations with his daughter

She spoke of constant beatings, with all members of the family subjected to a routine of aggression and fear.



A prosecutor told the the Nuremberg-Fürth regional court: 'She had three sons by her father, one of whom died as a baby, another of whom died recently, while the third survived.'



Authorities only uncovered the case after the woman was convicted of blackmailing the wife of a doctor she blamed for the disability of one of her sons.



She was assigned a parole officer who won her trust and eventually heard her story.



A spokeswoman for a rape crisis centre in Berlin said; 'This is a shocking judgment, for the woman (Adolf's wife and daughter), for women everywhere and for justice.