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After subjecting his daughter to a horrific catalogue of abuse, Josef Fritzl is seeking freedom…
His name became known around the world, his crime was so shocking.
But Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned and assaulted his daughter for 24 years, is appealing to be released from prison.
Following a psychiatric report, Fritzl, now 88, who was previously described as ‘extremely psychologically abnormal’ and ‘emotionally illiterate’ has been deemed no longer dangerous.
Austrian psychiatrist, Heidi Kastner, described him as suffering from dementia, frail and in need of a walking frame. His lawyer, Astrid Wagner said: ‘I would not be frightened of moving in with him in a flat share arrangement, or to live alongside him in a care home. He no longer possesses a sex drive.’
Acourt will decide in the next few weeks if he should be released and, if successful, he could be moved to a nursing home. But it may come as a shock, despite serving 15 years, given his crimes…
It was April 2008, when Josef arrived at an Austrian hospital with a gravely ill 19-year-old woman, called Kerstin. While she was treated in intensive care, appeals were made for her mum to come forward with information that could save the teenager’s life.
When Elisabeth Fritzl arrived at the hospital, it’s thought Josef told staff she was his daughter and had arrived on his doorstep, along with her kids after escaping a cult. She was whisked into a side room, threatened with charges of child neglect until her own story came out.
Elisabeth was 18 in 1984 when her father lured her into a cellar he’d been building under their family home – she was incarcerated in the tiny space – with eight locked doors separating her from the outside world.
Elisabeth had threatened to run away many times, so when Josef told family she’d run off to join a sect, they believed him. But the truth was horrifying.
For the next 24 years, she was imprisoned in the cold, dark, damp cell
