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It's hard sometimes to wrap your head around how depraved some people are.
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Father confesses to years of abuse in 'house of horrors'
73-year-old Austrian reveals underground dungeon where he fathered seven children with imprisoned daughter
Shocking details of what has been called "Austria's house of horrors" emerged yesterday as a 73-year-old man confessed to locking his daughter in a soundproofed underground cell for 24 years and fathering seven children with her. Josef Fritzl, an electrical engineer, admitted sexually abusing his daughter Elisabeth, 42, since she was 11. When she threatened to escape, he locked her in a dungeon he built beneath the family garden, covering it with a lawn and wild flowers so that neighbours would not become suspicious.
He confirmed that she had given birth to seven of his children, one of whom, a twin, died in 1996 after surviving three days. He admitted disposing of the baby's body by throwing it into an incinerator. He said he had assisted with the delivery of all the children.
Police said Elisabeth was beaten when she tried to protest at her incarceration, and realised after several years that it was futile to resist her domineering father.
Frank Polzer, the head of lower Austria's criminal affairs office, confirmed that Fritzl was considered the only culprit in the case. He described him as a "sprightly, physically fit and stately" 73-year old who had been "extraordinarily sexually potent" and "led a perfect double life".
His account that his daughter had run away from home and joined a sect was "reinforced by letters" from her, dictated by him, in which she wrote: "Don't look for me." With the letters he was able to convince police of his eligibility to look after some of her children he said she had left at the house, despite the fact that he had two serious previous criminal convictions.
As the horrors of the case unfolded and Austria tried to come to terms with a case of incest on an extraordinary scale, neighbours said they had thought the family strange, but not suspicious. They said they had not considered it particularly strange that the family bought large quantities of groceries which Fritzl mostly delivered to the cellar in the dark of night.
Nor did Fritzl's wife, Rosemarie (now 78), appear to know anything of the prison, accessed via a workshop, which police said had been enlarged several times as the family grew over the years.
"Her world has fallen apart," Polzer said of Fritzl's wife, who had seven other children with Fritzl, aged between 37 and 51, one of whom is a teacher. "She's in a bad way," a local councillor, Hans-Heinz Lenze, added. "She had known nothing of his double life." His children described him to police as being a "dominating tyrant" who frequently beat his children.
Fritzl and his wife raised three of the incest-born children after he told authorities that his daughter had dumped them on his doorstep, saying she was unable to cope with them. They adopted one and fostered the other two. Neighbours described Rosemarie as an "energetic and loving" grandmother. Social workers who were responsible for the family said that they had suspected nothing about the family, largely because Rosemarie had made a good impression on them.
After initially refusing to talk, Fritzl gave police the electronic code which opened a one-metre high iron door into the secret prison. "From that point he started to talk," a police spokesman said. "He's been fairly ready to speak, though initially weak on detail."
Police yesterday released a set of photographs showing the dungeon-like cell, with 1.7-metre (5ft 7in) high walls, beneath the back garden where Elisabeth had been held and where she gave birth to her seven children, three of whom were held there with her. A narrow passageway led to the rooms, including a small bathroom decorated with octopus and snail motifs, and a tiny bedroom. There was also a television - the only form of diversion or contact with the outside world.
Fritzl explained to police how he had habitually accessed the cellar, using a remote control device which he kept on his person all the time. He used the device to lock the door once he had entered the cell, telling the children that as he was the only one who knew the code, if they harmed him they would all die in the cell.
Elisabeth Fritzl was being treated last night in a nearby psychiatric clinic with six of her children. The head of the clinic, Berthold Kepplinger, said they would require lengthy therapy. "We're talking of 20 years of darkness, incest and its effects and other illnesses they might have suffered from."
Elisabeth was said to be white-haired, frail and traumatised. She only agreed to speak to police about her ordeal after being assured that she would never have to see her father again.
Felix, five, the youngest of Elisabeth's children, was said to be "bowled over" after being allowed to ride in a police car. "This was something he had only known from the television," Polzer said.
Fritzl appeared in court in St Pölten yesterday. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of raping his daughter.
The case only came to light after Elisabeth's 19-year-old daughter, Kerstin, was taken to hospital suffering from shortness of breath and cramps. A note from her mother was found with her by medical staff, who alerted police. Elisabeth was later brought to the hospital by her father; they were intercepted by police and taken for questioning.
It emerged that as Kerstin's illness worsened, Fritzl had released Elisabeth and her other two children from the cellar, telling his amazed wife that their daughter had returned. Kerstin was still in a critical state in an intensive care unit last night.
In an interview with Der Standard, a schoolfriend of Elisabeth said: "Her brother once said to me of his father: 'He'll kill us all one day.' "
Neighbours in Amstetten, a pretty town 70 miles from Vienna with a population of 23,000, expressed a mix of bewilderment and horror. "It's a catastrophe," said one. "It makes my hair stand on end."
Results of DNA tests which would confirm Josef as the father of Elisabeth's children are expected in a couple of days.
The case has drawn parallels with Natascha Kampusch, the Vienna schoolgirl abducted in 1998, aged 10, who finally escaped from her captor in 2006.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/austria
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/29/1
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