Josef Fritzl was convicted of rape, enslavement and murder today for locking up and raping his daughter in a cellar over 24 years, and causing the death by neglect of one of their seven children. He was sentenced to life in a psychiatric prison.
Following are some facts about the 73-year-old Austrian.
- Born on April 9th, 1935, Fritzl was raised as an unwanted only child. He told the psychiatric expert who interviewed him in jail that his mother had mistreated him during his childhood. Psychiatrist Adelheid Kastner said this contributed to a severe personality disorder including an inability to show compassion and a strong wish to dominate other people. But she said he was always aware that what he was doing was wrong and declared him fit for trial. "On a mental level, everything works well, on an emotional level, there is a massive deficit," she said.
- Fritzl lured his daughter Elisabeth, then 18 years old, into the cellar of the family home in Amstetten in 1984. He locked her up in the cellar for the next 24 years, raped her and fathered seven children with her, one of whom died as an infant in 1996 because Fritzl failed to get him medical help. Three of the children remained in the cellar, while Fritzl took three others upstairs and raised them with his wife.
- To cover up his second life, Fritzl made up a story that explained both Elisabeth's absence and the fact that he raised some of her children. He told authorities, neighbours and friends that Elisabeth had run away to join a sect. To corroborate this version, he forced her to write a letter asking her family not to try to contact her. He told his wife and neighbours that Elisabeth had abandoned the children. He once even pretended to be Elisabeth in a phone call to his wife Rosemarie.
- Fritzl, trained as electrical engineer, had planned the cellar for years, expanding it as his hidden family grew. It had a sliding reinforced concrete door locked by a numeric code, as well as a crude ventilation system.
- Fritzl began work as an electrician at an Austrian steelmaker and later worked in the concrete industry. He also bought several houses to earn rental income. However, he has since been declared bankrupt and his assets will be liquidated.