Supreme Court gives "Polish Fritzl" 12 years for raping daughter

Poland's Supreme Court on Thursday confirmed a 12-year prison sentence for a man convicted of keeping his teenage daughter prisoner and repeatedly raping her, DPA reported.

The court was confirming an earlier verdict by an appeals court last year. Thursday's was the final verdict and cannot be appealed.

Dubbed the "Polish Fritzl," Krzysztof Bartoszuk, 47, was found guilty last year of repeatedly raping his daughter, and physically and emotionally abusing his family.

Bartoszuk has been compared to Austrian Josef Fritzl, who received a life term in 2009 for the death of a baby he fathered with his daughter Elisabeth. Fritzl had held his daughter prisoner in a dungeon below his house for several years during which he raped her thousands of time.

Bartoszuk's lawyers had argued to the Supreme Court that his sentence was unfounded because his daughter had withdrawn her testimony during the final days of the trial.

But the Supreme Court said the girl had spoken the truth when she first decided to tell her story, and that the family "focuses its energy on hiding its pathology."

Bartoszuk was arrested in September 2008 near the border with Belarus.

Police said his daughter, now 24, gave birth to two boys in 2005 and 2007 who were the result of rape, and was later forced by her father to leave them at the hospital.

Bartoszuk had claimed in court that he had not forced his daughter into anything, and claimed she had encouraged him to have sex.