Belfast Child

Two weeks after the conviction of the Austrian father who enslaved and raped his daughter, two similar cases have emerged. Barbie Nadeau reports on the crimes of incest that are on the rise.

Two international incest cases—one in Turin, Italy, and another in Honda, Colombia—have emerged since Josef Fritzl of Austria was convicted of murder, incest, and slavery two weeks ago. The three similarly horrifying cases beg the question: How many more Josef Fritzls are out there?

In Colombia, widower Arcebio Alvarez, 59 years old, was jailed over the weekend for allegedly abusing his daughter, Alba Nidia Alvarez, 35, since she was just nine years old. He fathered 14 children with her, eight of whom survived. The youngest child is one. The children were all born at home and the circumstances around the deaths of five children remain a mystery. Authorities in Colombia say that Alvarez lived with the victim and their children on a ranch near the village of Honda until nine months ago when Alba Nidia took her five daughters and moved to a nearby village. Local investigators say she worked 14-hour days at a small café to support her daughters, who were often left alone. She did not come forward until her oldest son, now 19, and a local priest threatened to go to the police after the Fritzl case came to light. “I took this decision according to the will of God, thanks to a pastor who prayed for me many times," she told a local newspaper. "That is what gave me the strength."

Laura tried to tell social workers about the abuse, but her father convinced them that she was mentally ill.

Alvarez doesn’t deny the relationship he had with his daughter, who he says was free to come and go from the ranch, but who was rarely seen without her father. His defense attorney, Ricardo Correa, also says that Alba Nidia is not his biological daughter, though she maintains she was raised by him under the assumption that she was his daughter. She was left in his care when her mother died just after her fifth birthday. Alvarez told the court that the eight children he fathered are not products of incest. “We were in a consensual relationship,” he told the court at his arraignment for incest and sexual assault. “We really loved each other.”

Meanwhile in Turin, local media have dubbed 63-year-old Michele Mongelli the Italian Fritzl. Last week the scrap-metal dealer was arrested and charged with sexual assault and enslavement for abusing his daughter, who the Italian police have given the pseudonym “Laura,” for 25 years. She told police that her father was sexually violent and kissed her on the mouth from the time she was nine. She also testified that he forced her to have sexual intercourse from the time she was 16.

Laura’s brother, 40-year-old Giuseppe Mongelli, was also arrested for sexually abusing his own four young daughters. Laura and Giuseppe’s seven other siblings deny their father was abusive, but social workers were called to the house on several occasions after reports from school officials. Giuseppe and one of Michele’s other sons wear tattoos of their father’s face on their left arms. Laura, who dropped out of school at age 13, tried to tell social workers about the abuse, but her father convinced them that she was mentally ill. Laura's mother says her husband is innocent. “My husband goes around to metal markets,” the elder Mongelli’s wife told police. “He was also a cat burglar, breaking into houses at night to support our family, but he has never done any of these disgusting things.”

The Simon community is running a fundraising event this Friday in which they send a number of local business leaders and celebrities to jail.
The aim is to raise money for their work with homeless individuals and families throughout Northern Ireland. The bulk of this money will be raised by the ‘inmates’ using mobile phones from their cells to raise ‘bail’.
This seems like a very original idea and because of this a nice way to raise money for this charity, that helps the homeless.
Originally the Simon Community was set up in London in 1963 by Anton Wallich-Clifford. In his work with offenders and those on probation, Anton saw many people re-offending because they had nowhere to stay. In setting up the first Simon Community in his own home, he aimed to draw public attention to the needs of homeless people and to develop an experimental approach to their care and support.
This shows a bit that they have a history with (ex)prisoners and this kind of fundraising event would fit them well.
However their is something that makes me raise my eyebrows about this whole thing. That is that the Simon community is currently in a legal struggle about discrimination with a couple of their ex employees, who had been fired by the Simon community just because they were ex (political) prisoners, who had been prisoned without trial during the troubles in Northern Ireland.
This way of not allowing ex prisoners to work for them shows the Simon community actually has little trust in ex prisoners to change into people who want to do something good for the community, and now they want to send people to jail for them.
I can't help that this seems like a very weird thing, specially because the reason why they were once set up and the way they do not allow ex prisoners change their future by working for them is so contradictive.