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| Defendant Adolf B. arrives at court in Nuremberg, southern Germany. The German pensioner accused of raping his daughter repeatedly
over a 34-year-period and fathering three children with her. (AFP)
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But it sentenced him to the jail term for incest and coercion.
Bergbauer had been charged with nearly 500 counts of rape, but while he admitted sex with his daughter in testimony before the court, he denied he raped her, saying she had consented.
Prosecutors however said he started to rape his daughter when she was 12, fathering three children with her, and had demanded 14 years behind bars for the defendant. They said they would consider an appeal.
Judge Guenther Heydner said the court had not been able to conclude that the daughter was forced into sexual relations through violence.
"With testimony which changed in key aspects from charge to charge, we could not establish proof," he said.
Bergbauer, who is illiterate and used to work as an occasional labourer, claimed the first sexual contact took place when she was 17. "She was a willing participant," he insisted.
He said they had consensual sex around twice a week.
However, according to prosecutors, the daughter said he raped her in her parents' bedroom, in her own room and later in the woods in the back of his car.
She also said he forced her into sex at knife-point, which Bergbauer strenuously denied.
Of the three sons born as a result, two died and the other is handicapped.
Copyright © 2011. Dubai Media Incorporated.
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