AUSTRIA:A WOMAN living in the Austrian town of Amstetten has said she was raped in her own bed in 1967 by Josef Fritzl, the 73-year-old man who imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth in a cellar for 24 years.
The claim is being investigated by local police while authorities in western Austria investigate a tip-off that Fritzl may be connected to the unsolved murder of a 17-year-old girl in 1986.
Fritzl has reportedly refused to answer any further police questions after confessing on Monday to holding his daughter captive and fathering her seven children.
Yesterday, local Amstetten newspaper Oberösterreich Nachrichten published an interview with an unnamed woman who said Fritzl raped her in October 1967. "When I saw his picture I knew, I said 'yes, that's him'," she said.
"Those eyes. That's how I recognised him." She told the newspaper of a night 41 years ago when she was asleep in her ground floor apartment alone, her husband working a night shift.
"I woke up when I realised that someone was taking the bedclothes off me. I thought at first that it was my husband who had come back," she said. "He pressed a knife against my neck and said, 'If you scream, I'll kill you.' Then he raped me. Before he left, he said again that he would kill me if I said anything." When the case came to court, she said, it emerged that the man was a voyeur.
"He would ride around on his bike watching everything," she said. "It is insane for me that this was not checked out, regardless of how long ago it was." Police said yesterday they are investigating the claim, but that court records of the case may have been destroyed.
The charge, which does not appear on Fritzl's police file, may have been expunged in line with Austrian law. Authorities delete sentences of up to three years 12 months after the sentence ends; sentences of more than 36 months are removed after five years. For longer sentences, it can take 10 years, while life sentences are expunged after 15 years.
The Austrian government said yesterday it may increase to 30 years the length of time before sexual offences can be deleted.
Rudolf Mayer, lawyer for Josef Fritzl, said yesterday there was no evidence for the rape claim and that his client would not say "one word" about any further allegations. He told journalists yesterday that he will use the next court hearing on May 13th to raise questions about Mr Fritzl's mental fitness and criminal responsibility.
State prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said yesterday it could be months before the case is ready for trial. "There is evidence to be collected, expert reports to be prepared, and witnesses to hear," he said. Former tenants in the Fritzl apartment building since 1984 number more than 100. "When the family members testify depends entirely on when the doctors and psychologists say they can cope with it," said Mr Sedlacek.
It emerged yesterday the children locked in the cellar with Elisabeth Fritzl spoke to each other in a mixture of German and growls.
"To say the children speak is just the partial truth," said Leopold Etz, local police commissioner. "Among themselves, they communicate with noises that are a mixture of growling and cooing." Making themselves understood to others "seems to be totally exhausting for them", he said.
Elisabeth Fritzl (42) and her six children are still being treated at the Mostviertel Clinic in Amstetten. There they celebrated the 12th birthday of her second-youngest child, Alexander, yesterday, while her eldest daughter Kerstin (19) remains in a critical condition with an unidentified illness.
Meanwhile, police in western Austria are examining claims of a link between Josef Fritzl and the sexual assault and murder of a 17-year-old woman 22 years ago. The bound body of Martina Posch was found on the southern shore of Mond Lake on November 12th, 1986.
At the time, Fritzl's wife, Rosemarie, operated a campsite and guesthouse on the opposite shore. Police say they are doubtful of a link, but have admitted that Ms Posch bore a "remarkable" likeness to Elisabeth Fritzl.