Gettrick character is not right

I think whatever was driving Gettrick was not as simple as saying he was a pedophile. For one thing, he was definitely a psychopath. He killed people brutally and without compunction. He seemed to have some idealised picture in his head of what would make the perfect family, and seemed to be trying to create that with Sophie in some sick way, with no regard for anyone else but himself. He was one sick puppy! No doubt there was something in his past history that made him like that - something missing in his own family when he was a child, and I think there may have been some mention of his childhood, but I can't remember what it was now.

Come to think of it, right at the end, Julien said something about how a space or something missing could go on impacting a lot of lives. Maybe this was one of the 'missing' things he was thinking of. Just a thought.

Never lie to the dog.

Was he though? I know that this term nowadays gets tossed around left and right especially in America, labeling teachers who had sex with a horny 15 year old boy a pedophile, but let's stick to natural and scientific facts here.


How old were the girls he abducted? Afaik all girls he had a sexual contact with had already reached puberty. So, technically speaking he was not a pedophile.

I think CobblersAwls is right about his motivations.

His apparent motivation was to form "a family." "My family." In any means necessary no matter how foul.

The fact that he abducted teenaged girls and it was sexual assault of a minor was slightly different from being a serial pedophile with children. Legally perhaps the same. But the difference again seemed to be his movitation in doing it.
He seemed to be targeting young teen girls who were just old enough to bear children, but still young enough to be vulnerable to abduction and controllable.

Not really, we say pedophile for everything that has to do with kids but I guess the correct term would be hebephilia, if this was specifically about age.

There are other recorded cases of people abducting young girls and keeping them for as long as possible, so I'd guess it has more to do with control over them than just an age preference. The younger someone is, the easier it is to control them.

Natascha Kampusch, the Fritzl case and Ariel Castro come to mind.

Agree with other posters in that Gettrick was not just a pedophile. However, I do not believe he had any particular motivations, although he might have convinced himself along the way that he had them. Initially though it was all about control and gratification. He wanted to get things his way, no matter what, with complete disregard for anything or anybody else. In this sense, he was also a sociopath.
Remember how he kept the girls on a short leash. Even his own daughter -- whom he SUPPOSEDLY loved. He would have done anything to shut her up when she started crying. He wanted Alice to "stay in her corner". I believe control plays a big part in these type of kidnappings --like the Austrian case-- aside from the pedophile connotations.
And I do not think all this is the result of any events in the past. Some people are just cruel, mean and egoist and it only takes a few other factors to unleash the devil in them --but then, the devil must be there in the first place.

At the present moment, Gettrick doesn't need an older girl. He's living with Lucy, who basically belongs to him and with whom he can do anything he likes.

Maybe he'll have to consider abduction later, if Lucy dies or has to be killed. Or if Lucy lives and gets too old, he can impregnate her and create a new little girl for himself.