Argentinian Josef Fritzl 'kept daughter as sex slave for 22 years and fathered eight children'

A man has been accused of fathering eight children with his own daughter after keeping her as a sex slave for more than 20 years.

In a case with chilling similarities to that of Austria's Josef Fritzl, Domingo Bulacio allegedly began his campaign of sexual abuse when his daughter was just 15 years old.

They lived together in a single-roomed house in Argentina where Bulacio would even rape her in front of their children, prosecutors claim.

The horrendous allegations only came to light last year when the daughter took her youngest child, aged five, to a local health clinic in Termas de Rio Hondo after he fell ill.

When asked by the doctor who the dad was, she told them it was her own father.

Bulacio, 56, was then arrested after going on the run for around six weeks.

He was found 30 miles from his hometown at a relative's house in Loreto, Santiago del Estero, northern Argentina.

He was charged with sex crimes after DNA tests confirmed him as the biological father of the eight children, Argentinian newspaper Clarin reported.

There are conflicting reports over the status of Bulacio's wife, who is said to have either fled the home due to domestic abuse or to have died.

Her departure saw three of the couple's four children leave the home to stay with relatives.

Bulacio and her daughter, then aged 11, stayed at the small property where it is claimed the girl was subjected to a campaign of sexual abuse and threatened with death by her father.

The case, being held at a court in Santiago del Estero, has been adjourned until next week.

Six of the eight children are now living at the Eva Peron boarding school in Santiago del Estero, local media reported.

The allegations are reminiscent of those carried out by Josef Fritzl, a father who kept his daughter Elisabeth as a sex slave for 24 years in his Austrian home.

Holding her in a hidden soundproof room behind multiple locked doors, he fathered seven children with her after telling his wife she had run off to join a religious cult.

Fritzl is currently serving a life sentence in his home country after being convicted in 2009.