London, May 9 (ANI): After raping his own daughter for 24 years, sex beast Josef Fritzl has tried to justify his immoral deeds by saying that he was rescuing Elisabeth from an immoral life by imprisoning her in the cellar.

The 73-year-old electrical engineer insisted that Elisabeth, now 42, never complained about her fate - even as her teeth slowly rotted and fell out one by one.

In his confession, Fritzl said that he had decided to lock up his daughter after she rebelled against him.

"Ever since she entered puberty Elisabeth stopped doing what she was told. She just did not follow any of my rules any more. She would go out all night in local bars and come back stinking of alcohol and smoke," The Sun quoted him, as saying.

"I tried to rescue her from the swamp and I organised her a trainee job as a waitress.

"But sometimes there were days when she would not go to work. She even ran away twice and hung around with persons of questionable moral standards, who were certainly not a good influence on her.

"I always had to bring her home, but she always ran away again. That is why I had to arrange a place where I gave her the chance - by force - to keep away from the bad influences of the outside world," he said.

Fritzl said Elisabeth bore her 24-year ordeal bravely, despite a string of health problems.

He said: "Yeah, sure Elisabeth stayed strong, she caused me almost no problems. She never ever complained, even when her teeth slowly went rotten and fell out of her mouth one after the other, and she suffered day and night with unbearable pain and could not sleep."

Incredibly he felt betrayed when Elisabeth finally took her chance to alert the outside world to her plight after her 19-year-old daughter Kerstin was taken to hospital desperately ill. (ANI)