Milan, 22 August (LaPresse/AP) – On Thursday, Erik Menendez was denied parole by a California board. During the hearing, he gave his most detailed account in recent years of how he was raised and why he made the choices he did – both at the time of his parents' murder and during his decades in prison. Erik and Lyle Menendez were sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for shooting José and Kitty Menendez to death in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. Menendez has said for years that he was sexually abused by his father. He told the board, “I fantasised that my father was not alive.” ‘I wasn't raised with a moral foundation,’ Erik Menendez told the board. "I was raised to lie, cheat, steal — steal in an abstract sense. When I played tennis, my father made sure I cheated if he told me to. The idea that there is a right and wrong that I must not cross because it is a moral boundary was not instilled in me as a teenager.‘ Prosecutors asked why Menendez chose to kill his father rather than leave the family home, given that he was already 18 years old. He replied: ’In my mind, leaving meant dying. There was no choice. I was totally convinced that there was nowhere to go.‘ He also spoke of his fear of his father: ’It's hard to convey how terrifying my father was." The commission asked Menendez why he also killed his mother if his father was the abuser. He explained that he saw no difference between his parents because he had discovered that his mother knew about the abuse: “It was the most devastating moment of my life. It changed everything for me. I was protecting her by not telling her anything.” On killing his mother, he said: “I wish with all my heart that I hadn't done it.”