JOSEF FRITZL, accused of imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering her seven children, surprised an Austrian court yesterday by changing his plea to guilty on all counts.
His guilty plea now extends to previously contested charges of enslavement and negligent murder, carrying sentences of 20 years and life respectively, and changes a previously “partial” plea to full guilt on a rape charge.
Fritzl has already pleaded guilty to charges of false imprisonment, coercion and incest, leaving the eight-member jury to deliberate with judges today on whether the 11th-hour plea will have a mitigating influence on their verdict.
Meanwhile, court officials in St Pölten, near Vienna, refused to be drawn yesterday on a newspaper report that Elisabeth Fritzl was present during some of the in-camera trial.
Asked by trial judge Andrea Humer about his new plea, Fritzl indicated he had had a change of heart after watching 11 hours of video-taped testimony from his daughter Elisabeth. She gave a graphic account of her 24-year ordeal, locked in a damp secret cellar under the family home in Amstetten.
Fritzl admitted yesterday he was present at the birth of twin boys in 1996 and expressed regret for not acting to prevent the death of one, Michael, three days later from breathing problems.
State prosecutors had argued that, by failing to intervene, he was responsible for the death. Pleading guilty to the charge of negligent murder, he said in a steady voice, “I regret it.”
