Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has opened up about how she lost her faith in God after reading about the notorious case of Josef Fritzl.
The Austrian's abuse of his daughter, Elisabeth Fritzl, shocked the world when it emerged he had locked her up in his basement for 24 years and fathered seven children with her, including one that had died at birth.
Elisabeth Fritzl and six surviving children were freed in April 2008 after one of them fell sick and was taken to hospital, where doctors grew suspicious.
Badenoch said that reading about the case "blew out a candle" on her faith.
Speaking to the BBC, she said that she still held to a "cultural Christianity" but that the story of Elisabeth Fritzl had "killed" her faith.
Badenoch is the granddaughter of a clergyman and grew up a committed Christian.
She explained that she could not understand why her prayers for trivial matters were being answered and not Elisabeth Fritzl's prayers for something as serious as being freed from imprisonment and abuse.
“I thought, I was praying for all sorts of stupid things and I was getting my prayers answered," she said.
“I was praying to have good grades. My hair should grow longer, and I would pray for the bus to come on time so I wouldn’t miss something.
"It’s like, why were those prayers answered and not this woman’s prayers? And it just, it was like someone blew out a candle.”
She said that Josef Fritzl's abuse of his daughter had raised in her "a level of disgust and abhorrence that I’d never experienced".
Although she has rejected God, she says she has not rejected Christianity and that she values the role it has played in shaping British society.
“I rejected God, not Christianity. So I would still define myself as a cultural Christian," she said.
