Austria in shock over incest abuse case

Nov 1, 2008-Incest dad Fritzl, 74,has admitted locking his own mother in a bricked-up room for years until her actual death in 1980. According to a new report, Fritzl said he did so to punish her for grossly mistreating him as a child. Austrian media reported that she could have been held for up to 20 years. He inherited the home in Amstetten, Austria in 1959 from his mother when she was supposed to be dead. Dr. Adelheid Kastner , an Austrian prison psychiatrist who is assessing the 73-year-old's mental state, says Fritzl is not insane and recommends that he is never freed. VIA



Thursday, 1 May 2008-Alfred Dubanovsky, a plumber and a lodger at the Austrian house where a father allegedly imprisoned and abused his daughter says he saw another man go to the cellar where the abuse happened. His claim contradicts those of investigators who say the father, Josef Fritzl, had no accomplice. Mr Dubanovsky, rented a room in the Fritzl house for 12 years. Nobody is allowed to go down to the cellar. From the ground floor when noises were heard coming from the cellar, Mr Fritzl said it was the gas heating system. Mr Dubanovsky assumed the basement was being used as a storeroom because a neighbour said Mr Fritzl often took food down to the cellar. However, officials believe that no-one was aware of the existence of the purpose-built dungeon, citing DNA tests. Meanwhile, a sister-in-law, Christine R, told the Oesterreich newspaper that Mr Fritzl used to go into the cellar every morning at 0900 "apparently to draw plans for machines, which he sold to firms" .
"Often he even stayed down there for the night," she added. "Rosi [his wife] wasn't allowed to bring him a coffee". She said Mr Fritzl "was a despot, I hated him". She said he "always belittled" his wife Rosemarie, who has told police she knew nothing about the captives in the windowless cellar. VIA


Video-Steve Rosenberg takes a look at the life of Josef Fritzl, who is accused of holding his daughter captive in Austria for 24 years



Video-Former captive Natascha Kampusch has held out hope that the Fritzl family can come to terms with their ordeal.


Video-Austrian police have held a news conference about 73-year-old Josef Fritzl, who kept his daughter captive in a soundproof cellar for 24 years.

Doctors treating a family who were held captive in a soundproof cellar in Austria are doing "relatively well" since their release. Dr Berthold Kepplinger said he thought getting used to daylight and space would take them a few weeks.


Video-A vigil has been held in the Austrian town where Josef Fritzl kept his daughter in a cellar for 24 years.

Josef Fritzl, a 73-year-old man is accused of imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering seven children in Amstetten, some 120 kilometers west of Vienna.




Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, and her children were kept in rooms in the cellar where the ceiling was just 1.70 metres (5.5 feet) high.Her father drugged her in August 1984 and kept her in the cellar of the family home, regularly abusing her over two decades. The incestuous relationship allegedly produced seven children. The case came to light when one of the children, now 19, was admitted to hospital in critical condition.The Kronen-Zeitung tabloid portrayed Fritzl as a keen fisherman, popular among neighbours and locals, but a "monster, a brutal tyrant" in the cellar of his own home. Two of the boys and one girl went to school as normal, seemingly unaware that their mother and three other siblings (a girl of 19, and boys at 18 and five) were trapped underground. Elisabeth Fritzl told investigators her mother knew nothing about the sexual abuse she had endured since the age of 11, some seven years before she was locked away. According to ORF national television, the mother and five children are now in hospital. All are being treated by a team of psychologists. Reports said the mother was physically frail and badly disturbed by her ordeal.
VIA

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