Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch told tribunal judges on Wednesday his facility had a special unit of “real killers” to kill prisoners.

More than 30 members of Unit 703 had a specific task “to bring prisoners to be destroyed,” he said.

“I myself was the father of this special unit, the father of those killers,” Duch said.“If someone [in the special unit] did not [do their job], I would report to the leaders and they would be smashed.”

Duch, 66, whose real name is Kaing Kek Iev, is on trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and murder for his role as head of Tuol Sleng and Prey Sar prisons and the killing fields of Choeung Ek, a site of mass graves on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.