Fritzl - He could walk free after just 15 years

Published on Thursday 19 March 2009 23:45

JOSEF Fritzl could be free after serving 15 years – almost a decade less than the time he forced his daughter to serve in a basement dungeon.

Guilty of murder, rape, incest and slavery, the retired electrical engineer was yesterday sentenced to life in a psychiatric institution. But if "cured", he could yet be released.

While Elisabeth Fritzl was condemned to spend 24 years in the rat-infested basement of the family home, where she endured being raped 3,000 times and bore seven incestuous children, her tormentor has the prospect of parole, albeit a slim one.

If, after psychiatric treatment, Fritzl is deemed suitable for transfer to an ordinary prison, he will, under Austrian law, be eligible for parole after 15 years.

A court spokesman said three judges would then decide if the man, described by his psychiatrist as "born to rape", was still a danger to the public.

It is likely, however, that he will die in prison: he is 73.

The murder charge against Fritzl related to the death of a baby boy, Michael, that he fathered and allowed to die through neglect.

Although Fritzl had initially pleaded not guilty to that charge, he changed his plea after listening to his daughter's 11-hour video testimony and, according to his lawyer, then seeing her in court.

Elisabeth Fritzl, now 42, went to the court in order to see her father's reaction to her testimony.

Before sentencing, Fritzl said: "I regret from the bottom of my heart what I did to my family. Unfortunately, I can't make amends for it. I can only try to find ways to limit the damage that has been done."

Under Austrian law, a guilty plea can lead to a softer sentence. But Christiane Burkheiser, the prosecutor, dismissed his change of heart as a ploy.

"I don't see it as a confession but rather as an attempt to improve his position, to gain advantage through a show of weakness," she said. "At the last curtain call in the last act of this drama, he is showing his true face in trying to exploit people's gullibility. Do not be deceived. Do not be manipulated."

She then made a reference to the day in 1984 when Fritzl imprisoned his daughter after tricking her into going down to the cellar by asking her for help carrying a door, and said: "Don't carry the door into the cellar like Elisabeth did 24 years ago."

However, in his final plea, Rudolf Mayer, Fritzl's lawyer, said his client had been broken by the experience of seeing his daughter and listening to her testimony during which he became aware of the magnitude of his crimes.

He said: "After he saw the video, after he had seen what she was saying … he was shattered and broken inside. He was not trying to deceive the court."

Mr Mayer argued Fritzl was not guilty of murder by neglect and referred to extracts from Elisabeth's diaries, written during her incarceration, which had earlier been read to the court.

Michael and his twin brother, Alexander, were born on 28 April, 1996, and Elisabeth recorded on 30 April that they had been named. But at 12:15pm that day, she wrote: "Michael has died." Mr Mayer said the diaries gave no hint Fritzl knew Michael was dying, and so "it was not murder".

Elisabeth's lawyer, Eva Plaz, told the jury her client had found it painful giving evidence but went through with it because "she had to make him responsible for Michael's death. She owed it to her dead child".

She went on: "Michael was suffering. Fritzl knew it and he let him die. He was the master of life and death."

The jury of three men and five women agreed and after three hours' deliberation returned the verdict of guilty of all charges.

Fritzl sat calmly and bowed his head as the verdicts were read. He later told the court he accepted the outcome and waived his right to appeal. A court spokesman said Fritzl would be taken to a secure psychiatric ward for mentally deranged criminals.

Fritzl's abuses came to light last April when he took the eldest of the children he had by his daughter to hospital after she became seriously ill.

Elisabeth and her six surviving children, aged five to 19, are now living in an undisclosed location and with new identities. Elisabeth is said to be working on a book of her experiences.

MORE VICTIMS?

JOSEF Fritzl, who was convicted of rape in 1967, is a prime suspect in the murders of three young women and in a string of sex assaults going back more than 40 years, and he is to be quizzed by police.

The authorities believe he was responsible for the murder of Martina Posch, 17, who was raped and strangled on the shores of Mondsee lake in November 1986. Her body was found near a guesthouse he and his wife ran at the time.

Police think his earliest victim may have been Anna Neumayer, 17, who was shot with a bolt-action rifle in August 1966. She was on her way to Wells, less than 20 miles from where Fritzl was working at the time.

His most recent victim could have been Gabriele Superkova, 20, who was found near the Austrian-Czech border in August 2007, when Fritzl was holidaying in the area.