Fritzl sent to psychiatric hospital for life
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Josef Fritzl, the Austrian accused of enslaving his daughter in a secret cellar for 24 years and killing one of the seven children he fathered with her, was found guilty on all counts and will be incarcerated for life.
The eight-member jury deliberated about three hours today and unanimously declared him guilty. Fritzl, who initially pleaded innocent to the detention of his daughter Elisabeth, now 42, and the murder of their infant son, yesterday changed his plea to guilty after three days of testimony in the Lower Austrian provincial capital of St. Poelten.
“He’ll be sent to a facility for mentally abnormal criminals, and the verdict is final and enforceable,” court spokesman Franz Cutka said today at a press conference. “If an expert opinion showed he was healed, he’d be transferred to a penal institution to finish his sentence.” Fritzl gave up his right to appeal, Cutka said.
Fritzl admitted rape, incest, grievous assault and slavery at the start of proceedings March 16. He kept Elisabeth and their children in a windowless 60-square-meter (648-square-foot) chamber under his house in Amstetten.
Fritzl, 73, was composed and nodded his head to indicate he understood as Judge Andrea Humer told him his sentence. Dressed in a gray suit and blue shirt, he said earlier that he was “sorry from the bottom of my heart,” when Humer gave him the opportunity to speak at the trial’s end.
Daughter in court
Fritzl yesterday dropped his claim of innocence on the charge of negligent homicide of his baby boy after seeing Elisabeth in court the day before, defense lawyer Rudolf Mayer said in his closing remarks. She was seen in videotaped testimony and in person in the courtroom briefly.
The former electrical engineer “didn’t choose to be the way he is,” Mayer said.
Under Austrian law, a jury is required to deliver a verdict on the charges even after a defendant has pleaded guilty.
Fritzl admitted murder by negligence for denying essential medical care to a newborn twin boy in 1996. The child, who had breathing difficulties, survived for 66 hours after birth. Fritzl burned the infant’s body in a furnace.
Fritzl brought three of the surviving six children upstairs to live with him and his wife after he told her their daughter had joined a cult and abandoned them. His wife’s name hasn’t been released by officials because she is also considered one of Fritzl’s victims.
Repeatedly Raped
Austrian prosecutors said Fritzl used his daughter as a toy, raping her around 3,000 times during her captivity, often in front of the children.
The cellar was discovered by police after one of the children fell ill in April 2008 and Fritzl allowed her to be taken to a hospital.
The “extenuating circumstances” of Fritzl’s upbringing should be taken into consideration, Mayer said before deliberations began.
Court psychiatrist Adelheid Kastner yesterday said Fritzl, while not insane, should be placed in a psychiatric facility for abnormal criminals until he is proved not to be a risk.
“He knew he shouldn’t do these things, that they weren’t allowed,” Kastner said. “Fritzl’s own upbringing was characterized by fear.”
His mother beat Fritzl when he was a child and often left him alone for days at a time, Kastner said. She died in 1980 in the same house where four years later the crimes would begin. His father wasn’t a part of his life.
(Bloomberg)
- Jonathan Tirone
