INCEST monster Josef Fritzl has penned an apology for his crimes — and bizarrely claimed he is a good dad.
The 88-year-old fiend is eligible for parole after serving 15 years of a life term and is trying to prove he is reformed.
Fritzl, who had seven children with daughter Elisabeth after repeatedly raping her while keeping her captive in his cellar for 24 years, said in his note: “I regret all of my actions deeply.
“Kind regards, Fritzl.”
He added: “I was actually a good father.
“I specifically saved money to help with children’s education.
“I visited the children often, and helped them whenever they were given chores to do.
“I helped them and encouraged them to play musical instruments and so forth.
“I know with one of my daughters I made a mistake, and I regret that.
“But apart from that, I believe that I was actually a good father.”
The fiend added: “I’m not dangerous anymore.
“I’m the opposite.
“I don’t have any sexual desires for women, nothing like that at all.
“I have to say that in a strange way I am probably more free in prison than I ever was in the outside world, because, after all, I led a double life for ten years.
“I’ve given all of that up now, and so with this I have been able to give up all of this pressure.
“I don’t have to pretend anymore and carry the weight of this hiding and pretending and secrets.”
This week, our exclusive photo showed Fritzl arriving at court in Krems, Austria, where he was told he can move to a softer jail.
He could be out of prison altogether within a year and plans to “live in nature” and own a goat.
He added: “What I miss the most is just going for a walk and having a beer.”
His dungeon home has since been converted to flats, with Fritzl dismissive of their pink shade.
In another whinge, he added: “Prison was a huge shock.
“I had been a successful businessman and used to doing everything myself and being out and about.
“Then suddenly I had to live like a real, classic criminal.
“So I had to learn to cope with a loss of freedom, and to live on a very low budget.
“I have been bullied quite a lot by others so it hasn’t been a pleasant world.”
Fritzl also said that while in prison he has enjoyed the pleasures of sunlight after spending so much time underground.
He added: “I like to go out into the courtyard in the sunlight, but I always do it later on to avoid other people, so often I don’t get to feel the sun on my face.
“And unfortunately, some rubbish is burned there so it’s not a nice place to be.”
Fritzl began molesting Elisabeth when she was aged 11 in 1977.
Aged 18, he imprisoned her in his secret cellar in Amstetten.
Several of the seven kids born by rape were kept in the cellar until his crimes were exposed in 2008.
The eldest was 19.
One died in infancy.
Fritzl was jailed for life in 2009, but Austria’s parole laws allow prisoners to apply for release after serving 15 years.
Josef Fritzl’s crimes
The twisted dad asks his daughter Elisabeth to help him install a door in his cellar in 1984.
She agreed and moments later she is drugged with an ether-soaked towel, tied up and chained to a bed.
She would spend the next 24 years locked up in the hellish prison in Amstetten.
Evil Fritzl went on to rape her over 3,000 times in rat-infested bunker.
He would beat and kick her and force her into degrading acts – including re-enacting scenes from violent porn films.
Elisabeth gave birth to seven babies in the cellar with no medical care.
Kerstin, born 1988, Stefan (1990) and Felix (2002) were left to live with their mum in the underground hellhole.
But Lisa, (born 1992) Monica (1994) and Alexander (1996) – were raised upstairs, by Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie after he convinced her they were left on the doorstep by Elisabeth.
Alexander’s twin Michael died shortly after birth with cruel Fritzl tossing his body in an incinerator.
The family’s nightmare sees Fritzl threatening them if they dare to escape and punishing them by switching off the electricity.
Their nightmare comes to an end when Kerstin fell critically ill in 2008.
Fritzl allowed Elisabeth to take her to the hospital where she revealed the shocking horrors she had suffered.
Despite trying to argue he was trying to be a protective father, Fritzl was sentenced to life in prison in 2009.