;)
Josef Fritzl Gets Life Sentence
Friday, March 20, 2009 at 5:27AM 
"I regret from the bottom of my heart what I have done to my family. Unfortunately, I cannot make amends for it. I can only try to look for possibilities to try to limit the damage that's been done."
Those were the last words spoken by Josef Fritzl before the court at St Pölten passed judgment on him. They found him guilty on all 6 counts: rape, deprivation of liberty, incest, coercion, slavery and murder. His punishment: Life imprisonment.
Court representatives said Fritzl appeared 'composed' as his sentence was read out. He immediately accepted the sentence, as did the prosecution, meaning that it is legally binding and ruling out any right of appeal.
Fritzl's defense lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, confirmed that Elisabeth had been present for part of the trial.
'This is what triggered the agitation that led him to confess,' Mayer told German N-TV news channel, referring to his client's surprising change of heart.
Catch the story from the beginning in this 5-part video called The Josef Fritzl Story and read about developments in the case since being arrested and imprisoned on The Josef Fritzl Page.
The life sentence would entail a minimum of 15 years in prison, according to Franz Cutka, vice president of St Pölten courts. The 11 months he has already spent incarcerated would count towards that sentence. On the advice of Adelheid Kastner, the forensic psychiatrist who spent 25 hours evaluating Fritzl's mental health, he will first be sent to the Mittersteig prison in Vienna for an evaluation. Afterward, Fritzl may then be transferred to another prison or psychiatric institution. Kastner told the jury that locking him up without therapy and treatment could be dangerous, and that there was a real risk he would try to take his own life. She also said that Fritzl had a serious personality disorder and would pose a threat to others if freed. He remains under a suicide watch.
"He has the right to voice an opinion on where he should be sent, but this wish has to tally with any expert opinion and with the directorate of the prison," said Huber-Günsthofer the deputy director of St Pölten prison, where Fritzl has been held since his arrest last April.
There was never really any doubt of Fritzl's guilt, even his lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, admitted that Fritzl had raped his daughter 3,000 times, but his fate was sealed when Fritzl changed his plea to guilty on all counts, including the "murder by neglect" of his infant son, Michael. This was the most serious charge against him and it was this charge that earned him the life sentence.
"The life sentence was a consequence of his confession," Mayer told reporters after the jury's decision. "After confessing to 3,000 instances of rapes, 24 years of captivity in a cellar, plus murder, it's obvious that such a sentence will be handed down."
[wpvideo 4Vj7JcY9]
At a news conference after the verdict, court officials said Elisabeth could bring a separate civil case against Fritzl to seek damages for her suffering, adding there was no limit to what she could request. They said the Austrian government would join in on bankruptcy proceedings that Fritzl recently initiated, and said the process could involve selling his seven real estate holdings — including the house in Amstetten where he held his daughter. They also said Fritzl would have to secure permission from Austria's Justice Ministry if he wanted to write and sell his memoirs.
Amstetten's mayor verbalized the unspoken thoughts of the people of his town - and perhaps for most Austrians - who for almost a year came under the intense attention of the entire world when he said:
'A dark chapter in the history of our town is now closed,' said Amstetten Mayor Herbert Katzengruber after the guilty verdict was announced. 'We all hoped it would turn out this way.'
Reader Comments (7)
“I regret from the bottom of my heart what I have done to my family. Unfortunately, I cannot make amends for it. I can only try to look for possibilities to try to limit the damage that’s been done.”
He only regrets he got caught, like most pedophiles/murderers/rapists. Had that child not gotten sick, his daughter and the children would STILL be in that cellar, and he would STILL be raping her. I feel nothing but contempt for this man. He is sick and he needs to be locked up, away from everyone and everything. He doesn't need to go to a comfy psych hospital, where he will have a comfortable bed, TV, and things like that. That really gets my hackles up just thinking about it. He assured that his daughter and those children will FOREVER live in a prison in their minds because of what he did.
I am going to stop typing now, because as a victim of horrific abuse, I could really go off and keep ranting. I say put him away, lock him up like an animal, that's what he is.
i completely agree with what you said above, i dont know if austria has the death penalty, but that sure would have been my verdicit. I hope this man dies a slow death. and i hope all the men in prison have their way with him. rotten in hell SOB!!
God bless the Elizabeth and her children, maybe there be sunny days ahead!! Alyssa Barry (North Carolina,US)
This is such an awful story, I can't stop thinking about it. That poor, poor woman and her children living that existence. The things the children must have witnessed keep going through my mind.
How could this man be sentenced to a PSYCH WARD when he deserves a life worse than what he subjected them to? I'll never understand this.
His real punishment will start when he dies and is judged for the evil he has done. May he spend the rest of eternity in hell for Fritzl deserves that for what he did to his daughter.
Incase there is no afterlife, he must be confronted now while he lives. Let women "take care" of him which has so far been the case;his psychiatrist, the judge. Make sure he lives at least 24 years in the "care" of women. Allow him glimpses in to the "good" life men have, glimpses of his former life, the travel, the brothels, the meals with good old -fashioned men. Show him what a good time the WHOLE male world is having that he will not be a part of. Make sure he sees all this but make sure he is never a part of it.He may only ask permission of WOMEN ALL his life.That would make him genuinely vexed. I would love to be a fly on the wall
Here is a comment that I would like to make
about Josef Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie ...
Clearly that “person” (and one has to stretch the
definition of the word “person” in order to apply
it to that creature) known to the world as Josef
Fritzl was / is the DEVIL-INCARNATE ---- AND
he should burn in h*ll for all of eternity for his evil.
In addition, it also needs to be stated that no person
on earth should allow themselves be fooled for
even one moment by the lies of “I didn’t know”
that are currently being claimed by that lying
and equally evil wife of this evil DEVIL!!!
That vile, evil, perverted, disgusting, devil
b**tch of a wife of that MONSTER KNEW!!
SHE KNEW!!! SHE KNEW!!! SHE KNEW!!!
She KNEW the whole time (or at least had
literally no excuse whatsoever to have not
at least ‘suspected’ something was amiss!!!)
She is a LIAR and she must think the entire world is
as perverted as both she and her husband are and
that by coming up with that ridiculous and flimsy
excuse that she can then convince the rest of
the world to then respond to her own complicity
the same way she chose to respond to that of
her husband’s evil -- by 'turning a blind eye'.
BOTH of them are utter DEVILS and one
cannot help but to hope that they both burn
in h*ll for all of eternity for their evil acts!!!!
She expects anyone on this planet who has even
half-a-brain-stem to believe for even one fraction
of a moment that she didn't know anything at all?!?!
Give me a break!!!
For crying out loud--unless this woman is Helen
Keller --she has NO EXCUSE at all to not have
known (or at least ’suspected’) something strange
and conspiratorial was going on regarding her
daughter’s whereabouts and situation and that the
husband’s stories were just far too incredulous
and absolutely made no sense in the least bit!!!
After all -- think about it -- daughter runs away as a
very young teen; daughter mysteriously disappears
at the age of 18 (an age when she can both make
her own decisions and choose to get away from
her father and even bring charges against him); the
(convicted-rapist/arsonist) father gets a letter from
daughter 1 month after her disappearance which
ridiculously claims she has joined a cult and does
not want to have any contact with the family – yet
amazingly then later chooses (for 3 years in a row)
to simply leave 3 of her newborn babies on the
doorstep of very home that she tried to run away
from at least 2 X's before and is "allegedly thought"
to have finally left in order to join some sort of
“phantom” cult (a "cult" which, unlike every other
cult, just somehow, seemingly has no desire to try
to indoctrinate the youth from birth, but rather it
simply allows it's members to select a home --one
which in fact, is both not a part of the cult AND is
the very home from which the member ran in order
to join the cult ---to raise their babies and kids of
the cult members) --ALL THE WHILE – the father
forbids ANYONE to ever for ANY REASON dare to
go ANYWHERE NEAR the mysterious basement
(which he always keeps locked, disappears to for
hours and days on end; has ‘unseen’ bathroom
equipment installed; and has a cement-barricaded
door installed which both has a security-code and
which was so complicated it needed inspection
by local government authorities in order to install).
Just 2 years before the “discovery” of what this
monster (and his devil wife via her complicity of
silence) did to their poor child – another young girl,
and former kidnap victim, was also found in Austria.
It was discovered that the other young kidnap /
rape victim had disappeared 8 years earlier and
had been held in a basement / dungeon where
she had been repeatedly raped the entire time
by the individual who had also kidnapped her.
Now ---- even if the public was expected to
simply throw all common sense to the wind
and accept this monster’s devil-wife’s excuse
that she “didn’t know”, say, in the beginning …
it still stands to reason that after hearing about
the case of the other young girl 2 years earlier
----- this creep’s equally creepy wife would
have said something to herself like, say …
”””Hmmm … a young girl who disappeared 8 years
ago, out of no where, has been discovered
to have been held in a basement the entire
time and while there she was repeatedly
raped by the person who trapped her there.
Hmmm … my daughter, who repeatedly tried
to run away from my convicted-rapist husband
as a child has also mysteriously disappeared
– and – my convicted-rapist husband is
always coming across both ‘letters’ and
‘grandchildren’ that were allegedly left
by my daughter (who has vanished
without a trace) -- and – meanwhile
my convicted-rapist husband also
has a mysterious basement that he
keeps under lock and key and never
allows anyone to come near -- ever.
Hmmm … now I cannot help but to wonder
if that convicted-rapist husband I married
just may have had something to do with
the disappearance of our daughter – and
-- the appearance of all these grandkids
and letters – and I also can’t help but to
wonder if that mystery-basement room
of his would, in some way / in any way,
be connected somehow to our child’s
disappearance and / or the mysterious
appearance of all of these grandchildren.”””
Yes – one would think that – even if this woman
could have claimed ‘ignorance’ earlier – (a lie
which, again, no one with any common sense
should ever consider buying into) – once the
discovery was made of a similar situation 2
years earlier – she then had NO excuse to not
have at least been suspicious of something
about her convicted-rapist husband and his
ever-so-mysterious hidden basement room.
That vicious devil simply did not care at all about
her own daughter – or -- she simply cared more
about her own creature-comforts and keeping up
with her middle-class appearances than she did
about the torture being done to her own child.
THAT POOR GIRL’S VILE, DISGUSTING
PERVERTED LYING B*TCH OF A MOTHER
KNEW FULL WELL WHAT WAS GOING ON
-- SHE KNEW-- SHE KNEW-- SHE KNEW!!!
THAT WIFE IS A B*TCH, A DEVIL AND A
VILE PERVERT AND ONE CANNOT HELP
BUT TO TRULY HOPE THAT--- SINCE SHE
OBVIOUSLY FELT SOME STRANGE NEED
TO BE SO VERY LOYAL TO THAT DEVIL,
OF A PERVERTED CONVICTED-RAPIST
AND ARSONIST FREAK OF A HUSBAND
OF HERS AND TO CHOOSE TO STAND BY
HIS SIDE FOR A QUARTER OF A CENTURY
ALL THE WHILE THAT HE IMPRISONED
AND ALSO SEXUALLY AND PHYSICALLY
AND MENTALLY TORTURED THEIR CHILD
--- SHE WILL CONTINUE TO REMAIN BY
HIS SIDE AS THEY BOTH BURN IN H*LL
TOGETHER FOR ALL OF ETERNITY!!
She is clearly as much of a
pervert and devil as is he!!
Would anyone even be remotely surprised
if further investigation later revealed that
‘Rosemarie Fritzl’ (who is actually trying to
get the world to see her as a co-victim of
her daughter’s horrific nightmare of a life)
was actually just another ‘Rosemary West’
(a woman whose husband also originally –
and falsely – claimed that she had nothing
to do with his unbelievably evil sex crimes)?
What kind of a woman, after all, chooses to marry
(or remained married to) a man who had already
committed and also been convicted of previously
raping another woman and has shown absolutely
no remorse about any of it whatsoever in the least.
SHE KNEW!!! SHE KNEW!!! SHE KNEW!!!
I'm not surprised at how lenient his sentence is.. This is the world we live in. People who molest children are given lighter sentences, than someone who steals money.. I homeschool my 10 children, because the system is WRONG.. Our priorities are all screwed up. Ditto to the above posts. It is inconceivable to me that women allow men to do these things. But here's a heads up. WE raise them. We send them to school. And we pander to what society wants. We need to take some responsibility for being enablers. My children will stay home, and be nurtured as individuals, mixing with a wide range of people, so that when they go out into the world, they will be strong enough to survive. When I read stories like this, and stories like the mother who cut off her 5 week old boy's genitals, it just makes me more determined to ensure my children have the morals and strength to be shining lights, not join the depths of depravity that we as a society, with our hypocrisies, are digging for ourselves. I too am a survivor of incest. Commenting on Josef Fritzl is a waste of our energies. Direct them into developing a zero tolerance of sexualisation of children in the media. Child sexualisation in 'art'. Education, resources... Open your eyes. We have them closed. We enabled this abomination of a man with our mixed messages. Make it clear.