I have always thought that prison should be for rehabilitation rather than punishment, but reading this story, I find myself thinking that I could cheerfully see this man locked for ever in a windowless room, with nothing but flour and water and perhaps a daily kicking.

I hope the children and their mother can eventually lead something like a happy life, but I'm not sure if that's possible.

I just find the whole thing mind boggling. I cannot even begin to understand what the daughter must have gone through. The children who stayed with her only knew life in a prison and nothing else. How did her mother not realise the father was up to no good??

I found the pictures of the basement very distressing.

The mother must have known SOMETHING wasn't right. She must have been in denial.

I can't imagine what it must be like to give birth in those conditions.

I think it's unbearable to even begin to imagine what it was like, and I can't think of anything more twisted and depraved. The Austrian father is an unspeakably evil man.

He must be so egotistical to think that his daughter existed only to serve him.
Surely a father should wish the best life possible for his daughter

I cried for an hour after I heard this story. The worst thing is thinking about what sort of life this woman and her children are going to have now, carrying this darkness with them. How does someone then go on to lead a 'normal' life and be able to heal from this?!!! I'm absolutely disgusted with the wife too who 'supposedly' didn't know that this was going on for all these years. RUBBISH! If she didn't know, that's just as disturbing as far as I'm concerned. I don't think they should take his life, that would be too easy for him. He should have to endure precisely what he put them all through.

True. I'm totally against capital punishment but I keep having revenge fantasies in this case

what struck me: the austrian authorities always thought he was a decent guy "because he looked proper, was dynamic and potent". "potent"??? yeah right. i'm not getting revenge fantasies. i am getting upset because nobody seems to be asking "what kind of society is this where men are seen as good citizens when they subdue their wives, terrorize their families, and are dictatorial autocrats?" even without the cellar: why did nobody ever ask why his wive never ever said a word in contradiction to him? because that's how good wives behave... why did nobody ask why neighbour kids were scared of this man? because men can be scary. i am not saying that this makes any of what that guy did better, but i do believe that it was only possible because certain gender regimes are accepted in society. all he really did was take the logic to the end.

Yes, I wondered why they kept saying that he was "potent": I just thought that was an odd way to describe anyone.

You're probably right that this is the logical conclusion to the way women are viewed, but that dodgy view is widespread: in the UK, the majority of people seem to think that women bring sexual assult on themselves

It pi**ed me off that the Austrian government are going on about the country's reputation. I don't care about that. What I do care is that this guy gets more than the 15 years that they are talking about.

He should get life, he knew what he was doing.

Shani, I totally agree. All the moral outrage over this makes my blood boil nearly as much as the crimes themselves, because it's coming from the same people who turn a blind eye when women are psychologically and physically abused by their partners. Is this really surprising? :(

I wondered if he was mentally unbalanced. It's hard to imagine that anyone would be able to sustain treating people like that over so many years unless there was something seriously at fault with their brain, particularly in the realm of empathic abilities. They do say that this is lacking with certain disorders. I think he should be locked away and studied. As for the poor mother and children - as much care and help as possible should be lavished upon them.

In the meantime, 10,000 more children died in the last three days in Burma and newspapers prefer to report on the olympic torch on the Mount Everest. I'm not implying that the Austrian story is unbelievable, I just think the balance got out of control. The same newspapers that make this the top story and blame the Austrian government or society and point their fingers are guilty of the crime to be more concerned with Cheryl Cole's new haircut than with more pressing injustice in the world.

Jouri, it seems to me that in recent days the Burma story has been the headline on every news program and in every newspaper that I've seen. The Austrian story has gone very quiet now.

Though I do agree with the Cheryl Cole comment.