Australian Fritzl's victim 'took out restraining order against him in 2007'

Melbourne, Sept 18 (ANI): An Australian woman whose father allegedly raped her every day for 30 years had taken out a restraining order against him in 2007 - two years before he was eventually charged.

She was also reportedly pursued by state authorities to pay for damage to a house she fled to escape her father. The revelations come amid claims that neighbours felt intimidated by the man, reports The Daily Telegraph.

"I was terrified of him," a former neighbour who helped the woman flee in 2007 said.

"One of the other neighbours phoned police years ago. I don't know what happened then. You have no idea what that family has been through, no idea. Something should have been done a lot sooner. A lot of people knew about this. There are people who should burn in hell," the neighbour added.

The victim's 60-year-old Victorian dad, dubbed Australian Fritzl, has been charged with sexually abusing his daughter for three decades and fathering her four children.

He is due to appear in the Victorian County Court in November for a pre-sentence hearing.

In a case echoing those of Austria's Josef Fritzl and California's Phillip Garrido, the rapes allegedly took place over a 30-year period, beginning when the girl was 11, Melbourne's Herald Sun reports, and continued until 2007.

Cops reportedly believe the man threatened to harm the girl's mother and siblings if they spoke out about the rapes.

One of the four children, a girl, died. Her cause of death was attributed to, among other things, respiratory failure and lung disease, according to the Herald Sun report. The three surviving children reportedly all suffer severe health problems.

The suspect's wife, the mother of the victim - with whom the suspect, daughter and their children lived until 2005 - maintains she was ignorant of the sex abuse allegedly taking place almost daily.

Fritzl, a 73-year-old Austrian, was sentenced to life in a secure mental unit last March for locking up and raping his daughter in a cellar over 24 years. He fathered seven children with her. (ANI)