The story of Josef Fritzl, the man believed to have imprisoned his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathered her seven children, has been described as one of the worst cases in Austria's criminal history.
Before you rad this, let me tell you that all this was happening in the building, with many apartements..
And was happening for years..I am not sure if I read anywhere what was his wife (mother of raped girl, to make it clear)doing, how and which stories did she "buy" or was just ignoring..
Judge prolongs Fritzl's custody
Mr Fritzl confessed to imprisoning his daughter for 24 years
A judge in Austria has extended by another month the detention of Josef Fritzl, accused of imprisoning his daughter in a cellar for 24 years.
The ruling came during a 15-minute, closed-door hearing in St Poelten, where Mr Fritzl is being held.
Mr Fritzl, who attended the hearing with his lawyer, is understood to have remained silent during the ruling.
He has been in custody in the Lower Austria regional capital since his arrest at the end of April.
The ruling, also attended by the state prosecutor, will be re-evaluated in a month, a court spokesman said.
The BBC's Bethany Bell, in St Poelten, says the extended custody will allow further time for the police to continue their investigation and also the state prosecutor to gather evidence.
It was not clear, she said, when the state prosecutor would next be interviewing Mr Fritzl.
In comments published on Thursday, Mr Fritzl said he was driven by an addiction that "got out of control".
Speaking through his lawyer, he said he had locked up his daughter Elisabeth to protect her from the outside world.
The statement was carried by the Austrian magazine News.
Over the past few days, police have been questioning dozens of people who had connections with Mr Fritzl and his family.
And they have been searching the cellar dungeon inch by inch.
'Matter-of-fact'
In his statement through his lawyer, Mr Fritzl said he had tried to care for Elisabeth and her children by taking them flowers, toys and books.
He fathered seven children with his daughter - one of whom died when very young, three of whom were kept imprisoned in his cellar, and three others who went on to live with Mr Fritzl as his adopted or fostered children.
Elisabeth has told police that her father started sexually abusing her when she was 11.
In conversations with his lawyer Mr Fritzl admitted repeatedly raping Elisabeth, now 42, on visits to the cellar.
"I knew Elisabeth didn't want me to do what I did to her," he said.
"I knew that I was hurting her. It was like an addiction...
"I knew the whole time that what I was doing was not right... but... it became completely matter-of-fact for me that I had a second life, which I led in the cellar of my house."
Mr Fritzl insisted he still loved his wife, Rosemarie, with whom he has seven children.
"Since I can remember, it was my innermost wish to have lots of children - and I considered Rosemarie to be the suitable mother," he said. "The fact is I loved her and I still love her."
Children in care
He said that he had locked up his daughter in 1984 as a way of controlling her behaviour after "she broke all the rules" following the onset of puberty.
"I needed to create a place in which I could at some point keep her away from the outside world, by force if necessary," he said.
Mr Fritzl reportedly criticised media coverage of his case as "totally one-sided", and added that he was "not a monster".
"When I went into the bunker, I brought flowers for my daughter, and books and toys for the children, and I watched adventure videos with them while Elisabeth was cooking our favourite dish," News magazine quoted him as saying.
"And then we all sat around the table and ate together."
He also repeated his claim that he had installed a timer device on the doors of the dungeon so that if anything happened to him, they would open after a certain length of time.
"Had I died, Elisabeth and the children would have been set free," he said. Elisabeth and five of her children are now in care with the Austrian authorities, who are protecting their privacy at a psychiatric clinic.
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Monday May 12, 2008, 7:38 pm
I cannot think of anything bad enough that could be done to this evil man. He will surely burn in hell. Thank you Cebelica
Tuesday May 13, 2008, 1:32 am
This man should not be deemed as mentally ill. He knew what he was doing. Fritzl should spend the rest of his life in a cage.
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Tuesday May 13, 2008, 1:38 am
I AGREE STRONGLY! AND NOT ONLY ABOUTTHIS CASE, FOR EXCUSES REGARDING MENTALLY INCOMPETENCES ARE SO VERY MUCH ABUSED! MANY SOCIOPTS AND CRIMINALS ARE INTELIGENTE AND KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING, AND DO THIS BECAUSE COUNT ON WILL NOT BE CAUGHT OR COUNTING ON LAWS PARAGRAPHES WHICH WOULD ENABLE THEM TO AVOIT SENTENCES AND PUNISHMENT!
ALSO, WHY ALL THESE PEOPLE ( WHO LIFE THE REST OF THEIR LIFE PRETTY NORMALLY) DO NOT HARM THEMSELVES , IF ARE MENTALLY ILL?? THAT SMART THEY ARE TO KNOW WHAT PAIN AND HARMING IS, AND DO EVERYTHING TO AVOID IT THEMSELVES!
I agree his defender is trying to explain that he did not know what he was doing! He should be in a cage on bread and water for the rest of his life!
What is amazing is that nobody ever asked what had happened to his daughter! This is the most frihgtening site of this case! The police has been stupid enough to never investigate the disapearing...If they would have checked 24 years of the worst abuse could have been avoided....
Since he had allready been convicted for rape before why did they not check anything!
Abuse is bad but this is the saddest story that you can possibly think of!
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Tuesday May 13, 2008, 3:00 am
That is what I was asking myself too..people vanish, nobody ask for them! Nor neighborhood, nor family members, nor relatives, friends..And also , did not figure out what was a position of his wife.
Well, it is modern world..complete alienation!
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Tuesday May 13, 2008, 3:03 am
And this! While we watch TV and cry over imaginate persons destinies in soap operas, someone next to our door suffer, and we dont notice it. And worse, if notice, we dont mind!
We never think that our current silence can be our future punishment!
If nothing, we should ask ourselves:Who is going to be next! It might be me!
Tuesday May 13, 2008, 3:15 am
How Can people just vanish without any people starting to search for them?
Why did nobody search for her? She had friends and she had told and written
about being lucky that she will be gone soon...why no questions?
Tuesday May 13, 2008, 3:33 am
Here is a thought few of us ever realize.
Many people watch soap operas with people who are college educated and are paid very high salaries to perforn & act like the people who are watching them.......Tlk about living through the lives of others!!!
Cebelica.....You are so right!! However, many of us do mind. In the modern world we are supposed to mind our own business when we know harm is being done or some situation does not seem right.
Often times we are afraid of making false accusations when it is crystal clear something is amiss........But few think of making an anonynimous phone call to spare a child or anyone of abuse that may potentially lead to death. And, as often few of us listen to our gut instincts.....
I've never had my gut to let me down and many times I've not listened to it!!!!!!!!!!!!
"The Great Spirit gave you two ears and
only one mouth, so you can talk
half as much as you listen."
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Tuesday May 13, 2008, 3:43 am
Bette, just ..beautifull!
I know there are people that mind, and that is why am here..!
Was just speaking of it as an consequence of modern , hectic life, which results in alienation, and loneless in a crowd!
Tuesday May 13, 2008, 4:00 am
Yes and this is just a terrible thing. I agree he should be served the rightful punishment for being so brutally without empathy or care for his own daughter (his own flesh and blood). He might have overlooked the fact that she is his own daughter but she is her very own individual human being, who deserves to live her own life and someday live on her own. I think what he purposely instigated in his mindset is that his own daughter is his own possession like a thing at his very own disposal and that nobody would care whatever he might do to her and that includes sadly to harm her....This is injustice to innocent victims of this horrible demeaning and controlling monster who went out of control. I think he should be sacked and buried alive to his own death and should be left to rot and decay in torture for what he did. He doesn't deserve and easy death. For sure if he gets away with the stupid Austrian court somebody would just shoot him while he is walking dow the street coz everybody in the whole wide world knows of his evil personality and hates him to his guts!
Tuesday May 13, 2008, 5:09 am
Seeing the film on television of him having a good time on holiday shows that he knew exactly what he was doing. He should be given the death penalty - even that is too kind for what he has put these innocent victims through. God's judgement will be a terrible one.
Tuesday May 13, 2008, 5:29 am
Hi Simon! What do you suggest that we should do with monsters like Fritzl?
He would not live one day in any prison in this world! Without being protected 24 hours! Stein is the prison for the heavy cases in Austria! But it would just mean 24/7 protection from his fellow prisoners to keep him alife!
I am against killing people but i dont believe that he should go on Vacatio n to Thailand do you?
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Tuesday May 13, 2008, 5:30 am
Great and intriguing questions Simon, touching basic ethical area. Yet, tell me, what would you do if were authorized to judge this person??! thank you!
Tuesday May 13, 2008, 5:30 am
So to avoid it to happen again and to show all those other monsters out there that they have no right and no place in this world to do such a terrible thing to their own mankind.
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Tuesday May 13, 2008, 5:33 am
Well, I should judge him this way (as am against death penalty, for many reasons) -to serve society working hardly, mark him publically , so everybody knows who he is! And isolating from all benefits of life, of course!
Tuesday May 13, 2008, 5:35 am
and is that right the sentence is only for 15 years for him?!!! while he imprisoned and ruined his won daughter's life for 24 years and bore children with her?!!! and then what after he gets paroled or get out of prison and free to be merry and happy again. It seems this person has it already in his blood to be a criminal. Justice should be put down to this person now. I think this person should be tortured to slowly until he dies.
Tuesday May 13, 2008, 5:42 am
Simon......I think your entire thinking would change if you had a daughter & she was kept cative for many years & sexually assaulted non stop!!!!!!
Compassion is great but there is no room for compassion in situations like this. This man has ruined so many lives strictly to satisfy hiw own sexual gratisfications!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do you watch television and live through the lives of those high paying actresses & actors to act out the lives of the poor, the non educated, the abuse of every kind known to man including this horrible scenario????????
Or do you watch/read these stories to learn from & know what to watch out for??????? Do you know the difference????????
“The church says the earth is flat,
but I know that it is round,
for I have seen the shadow on the moon,
and I have more faith in a
shadow than in the church”
Ferdinand Magellan
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Tuesday May 13, 2008, 5:44 am
I COULDNT POSSIBLY PUT HERE,IN WORDS,THE THINGS I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THIS MAN GO THROUGH.HE ISNT WORTHY OF BEING CALLED AN ANIMAL,THEY HAVE MORE MORALS THAN THIS FILTH ANYDAY
Tuesday May 13, 2008, 5:45 am
and this person is highly intelligent he can easily device ways to be able to live his life again if you set him free with only 15 year sentence. This is not fair to Elisabeth!!!
Tuesday May 13, 2008, 6:12 am
yes i saw this news before all his other previous victims started popping out. And now this is something new it seems he is also stealing food and banned animals for fear of getting caught...sneaky evil person. Then do you still want put mercy on this person with all the things he'd done? He shows no remorse!
Tuesday May 13, 2008, 6:45 am
I am against human cruelty and abuse. I think justice should be placed righteous in cases like this. Death penalty is cruel but for people with no remorse and doesn't learn do you think lenient justice is what serves them right? He may pay for a couple of years for what crimes he did to his daughter. But that is nothing compared to the psychological trauma and the life that Elsabeth (his own daughter) experienced under his cruelty and abuse. She lost the prime of her life becuase it was deprived of her. She wasn't given a chance to live normal let alone abused by her own father. For years she has managed to survive that kind of abuse from her own kin. I cannot imagine a most unbearable tragedy that can happen to a person but this is surely one of those that tops the list of horrifying events.
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Tuesday May 13, 2008, 6:54 am
DEATH SOMETIMES IS NOT PENALTY, YOU KNOW? IT CAN BE MERCY, AND AT LAST WE ALL HAVE TO FACE WITH IT. LIVING AND PAYING FOR CRIMES IS MUCH BETTER WAY OF PUNISHING. WILL SUBMIT A STORY ABOUT PUNSIHEMENT AND LET US TALK THERE. THANK YOU!
Tuesday May 13, 2008, 6:56 am
He would have had to be crazy to do such a horrible thing but allowing the laws to protect him because he is mentally ill just seem the biggest travesty of justice. His daughter and those children will never have a normal life now and he robbed them of any chance of that. Whether he is locked up in a jail cell or committed for life, he should never be free again, period.
Tuesday May 13, 2008, 6:57 am
Not everyone in the world hates that man. We Buddhists and Christians (and maybe people of other religions) learn to forgive and have compassion for all living beings.
We can make a distinction between punishment and effective rehabilitation. We might be angry at that man, or scared of that man, or disgusted at that man... but if we let our emotions rule us, we might not take the practical actions that will ensure that we prevent him from harming more people, and prevent other people from harming people. Let's take the actions that will minimise illegal and legal violence in the world - regardless of emotions and calls for punishment (revenge).
Tuesday May 13, 2008, 6:59 am
Simon raises an interesting moral point which few of you are prepared to engage with. Of course what Fritzl did was a horror beyond imagination. And I do have some sympathy for some people's knee-jerk reactions about how he should be caged, tortured, etc. His crime is utterly appaling to all of us and my heart weeps for Elisabeth and her children.
And yet, a society cannot be governed by knee-jerk reactions. There are no easy answers to these questions, and those of you who let yourselves be ruled by the knee-jerk do everyone a disservice. Why, despite have record numbers of prison inmates and record numbers of executions does the crime and murder rate in the US continue to climb? Clearly the lock-'em-up-and-kill'em policy isn't working.
But we are too busy wallowing in emotionalism to really ask ourselves Simon's questions: "Why do we kill people who kill people to show people that killing people is wrong? Why do we cage people who cage people to show people that caging people is wrong?" Which begs my question: how has this kind of retribution ever stopped perpetrators of crime?
I am not suggesting that Frtizl get off free to go back to Thailand as some have said. I'm asking how we as a society hope to change anything fundamentally. Is anyone out there prepared to engage with that?? Or do you want to just continue to vent your rage by expressing the need to torture him to death?
