"I'm no monster," says dungeon dad

Melbourne, May 7 : Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who imprisoned his daughter and continually raped her for 24 years, says he is "no monster".

The 73-year-old electrical engineer added that no one would have known if he had killed all the children he forced her to bear.

"I'm no monster," News.com.au quoted him, as saying by his lawyer to the tabloid daily Oesterreich.

Fritzl claimed credit for saving the life of his eldest daughter but added that he could have killed his daughter and all the children.

"I could have killed them all. Then there would have been no trace. No one would have found me out," he added.

In remarks transmitted by lawyer Rudolf Mayer to the newspaper, Fritzl, said it was his act that saved the life of the eldest of the six surviving children born out of the sexual abuse.

ANI