London, Mar 29 : Michele Mongelli, the ‘Italian Josef Fritzl’ who kept his daughter prisoner and brutally raped her for 25 years, was known to police, it has emerged.

Listening devices had been placed in the handset of Mongelli, a 63-year-old a scrap metal dealer in Turin, as part of the probe against him and his son Giuseppe, 41.

Officers heard him carry out the attack on his daughter, 34, after the handset had been misplaced, reports The Telegraph.

Also, neither the police who once arrested him and his son for theft, nor social workers who checked regularly on the progress of another deaf son had any idea about his horrific deeds, say reports.

One investigator involved in the case said: "It was horrific."

It is said that Mongelli have raped his daughter and "groomed" his son Giuseppe to abuse not only his sister but also his own four children, aged between six and 20.

The two men were arrested last week in what has already been dubbed Italy''s version of the Josef Fritzl case - the Austrian who was jailed for life earlier this month for enslaving and raping his daughter for 24 years and fathering her seven children. (ANI)