Source:The Guardian
Sentenced to life - the father who imprisoned, murdered, and raped unchecked for 24 years
Josef Fritzl was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday for incarcerating his daughter in a purpose-built prison beneath the family home in Amstetten for 24 years, raping her more than 3,000 times, fathering seven children with her and causing the death of a twin son.
Clutching the arms of his chair, he kept his emotions concealed as the verdict was read out in the hushed court in St Pölten.
A jury of five women and three men convicted Fritzl of incest, rape, enslavement, coercion and murder by neglect. In a thick Austrian dialect, barely audible, he accepted the verdict. He waived his right to appeal. "I regret from the bottom of my heart what I have done to my family," he said, before the sentencing. "I cannot make amends, but I will look for any possibility to try to limit the damage."
As the trial ended some observers said it had raised more questions than it had answered. Critics of the speedy judicial process asked why none of the authorities who failed to question Fritzl's behaviour over the years, or to see through his web of deceit, were called to give evidence.
Although Fritzl was already a convicted rapist investigated for a string of other sex crimes, he was not questioned when his daughter went missing in August 1984, aged 18. He claimed she had joined a sect, when in fact he had locked her in the secret underground cellar that would remain her prison for a quarter of a century.
Neither did the authorities doubt his stories concerning the three children allegedly abandoned on his doorstep over subsequent years. Fritzl said they had been somehow left by his daughter. The local social services allowed him and his wife, Rosemarie, to foster and adopt them, despite his record. They visited the family 21 times and made note of his strict and dominant personality, but concluded the children were in good hands.
Fritzl, 73, will be sent to a psychiatric institution and according to his lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, had "come to terms" with the fact that he would probably die behind bars. Officials said he would be treated for a severe personality disorder. In theory he could be released after 15 years, if experts deemed he had been cured of his condition and no longer posed a threat to society.
Mayer confirmed reports that his client had admitted the charges after catching sight of Elisabeth, who had slipped into a closed session on Tuesday to see Fritzl watch her taped testimony. "Fritzl cried as he watched the tape, and then he turned around and saw his daughter sitting in the public gallery. At that point it was all over," Mayer said. "That was obviously the very effect the court hoped to have. He was shattered and broken inside." Last night he was said to be on suicide watch.
Eva Plaz, the lawyer representing Fritzl's victims, said that Elisabeth had taken the painful decision to give evidence in the hope of seeing her father imprisoned for life for the death of her son Michael, who succumbed to severe respiratory difficulties in 1996 when he was just 66 hours old. The court ruled the child would have lived if Fritzl had fetched medical help.
"My client's main reason for putting herself through the pain of giving evidence was to ensure the accused was forced to take responsibility for Michael's death. She said she owed it to her son," Plaz said. "Michael was suffering and Fritzl knew it, and nevertheless let him die. He was the master of life and death in the cellar."
Mayer said Fritzl hoped to offer financial compensation to his family, to pay for the lifetime of treatment most of them are expected to need. He will also be expected to pay all court costs. But as bankruptcy proceedings have been launched against the former property dealer, it is unclear where the funds will come from.
Meanwhile, the town of Amstetten breathed a sigh of relief yesterday. "The media caravan can finally move on, and we can get back to our lives," said a woman who lives across from the former Fritzl family home on Ybbsstrasse. The €350,000 grey concrete house beneath which Elisabeth and her children were imprisoned is expected to be bought by the local authority and then bulldozed.
Press fights back
It took just a few headlines to sum up a nation's sense of chagrin. "England attacks Austria," declared Österreich, while Heute splashed with the headline: "Evil attack on our Austria!"
Reports in almost all newspapers lashed out at British coverage of the Fritzl trial, arguing that the red-tops in particular were intent on putting Austria in the dock. "An ex-Big Brother star is lying on her death bed, unemployment has reached a record high, yet Fritzl is top of the agenda in the British media," reported Österreich.
"Austria-bashing appears to be very much in vogue," wrote Heute. "It even extends to attacks on our economy and our banking system."
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