- Josef Fritzl pleads guilty to incest and rape
- Adelaide Now
- 17/03/2009 Make a Comment
- Contributed by: The Rooster ( 258 articles in 2009 )
JOSEF Fritzl, the Austrian man accused of locking his daughter Elisabeth in the cellar for 24 years, raping her and forcing her to have seven children, has told a court that he too was abused as a child.
"I had a very difficult childhood," Fritzl said in a trembling voice.
"My mother didn't want me. She was 42 when she had me," the 73-year-old retired electrical engineer told the three judges and eight jurors hearing his case.
At the age of 12, when he made it clear that he would not tolerate being beaten any longer and would defend himself, Fritzl says he was then "Satan personified for her".
His relationship with his mother was never close, even though they shared the same house until her death in 1980. She never showed him any affection and his father appeared only "rarely and sporadically". Fritzl attributed his mother's coldness to her own childhood.
"Her life wasn't the best, either," he said.
Fritzl, who used electrically-controlled doors to stop Elisabeth and her children escaping from their dungeon in their town of Amstetten, has pleaded guilty to incest, rape and sequestration, but denied charges enslavement and murder over the death of one of the babies. Prosecutors accuse him of letting the baby die shortly after birth in 1996, when he failed to seek medical help. Fritzl told police the baby was stillborn and he burnt the body in a boiler in the cellar. He faces 15 years in jail, but the murder charge carries a life sentence.
The white-haired Fritzl hid his face behind a blue document folder as he entered the court. It was his first appearance in public since the case broke last April when the eldest child, Kerstin, 19, who had lived her entire life underground, fell severely ill and had to be hospitalised.
'Daughter was a toy'
At the start of the trial, prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser said Fritzl used his daughter "as a toy" during the 24 years he held her captive in a narrow cellar with no hot water, no heating, no fresh air or sunlight, describing his crimes as "inconceivable". Ms Burkheiser said Fritzl had raped his daughter in front of her children and the defendant "showed no sign of regret or any consciousness of wrongdoing".
"He came (to the cellar). Lights out. Rape. Lights on," she said.
"I went down there twice and there's a morbid atmosphere. It's damp, it's musty, it's mouldy."
Fritzl's lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, who has argued his client was trying only to create a second family, maintained he was no monster.
"If you only lock up your daughter to have sex with her, you're not going to have any children, you're not going to get schoolbooks (for them) or a Christmas tree."
Three of the children had been brought to live with Fritzl and his wife, but the three other surviving ones spent their entire lives in the dungeon, never seeing daylight until their release in April. Authorities are trying to organise a new life for them under a new identity.
The trial is expected to last until Friday.
"I had a very difficult childhood," Fritzl said in a trembling voice.
"My mother didn't want me. She was 42 when she had me," the 73-year-old retired electrical engineer told the three judges and eight jurors hearing his case.
At the age of 12, when he made it clear that he would not tolerate being beaten any longer and would defend himself, Fritzl says he was then "Satan personified for her".
His relationship with his mother was never close, even though they shared the same house until her death in 1980. She never showed him any affection and his father appeared only "rarely and sporadically". Fritzl attributed his mother's coldness to her own childhood.
"Her life wasn't the best, either," he said.
Fritzl, who used electrically-controlled doors to stop Elisabeth and her children escaping from their dungeon in their town of Amstetten, has pleaded guilty to incest, rape and sequestration, but denied charges enslavement and murder over the death of one of the babies. Prosecutors accuse him of letting the baby die shortly after birth in 1996, when he failed to seek medical help. Fritzl told police the baby was stillborn and he burnt the body in a boiler in the cellar. He faces 15 years in jail, but the murder charge carries a life sentence.
The white-haired Fritzl hid his face behind a blue document folder as he entered the court. It was his first appearance in public since the case broke last April when the eldest child, Kerstin, 19, who had lived her entire life underground, fell severely ill and had to be hospitalised.
'Daughter was a toy'
At the start of the trial, prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser said Fritzl used his daughter "as a toy" during the 24 years he held her captive in a narrow cellar with no hot water, no heating, no fresh air or sunlight, describing his crimes as "inconceivable". Ms Burkheiser said Fritzl had raped his daughter in front of her children and the defendant "showed no sign of regret or any consciousness of wrongdoing".
"He came (to the cellar). Lights out. Rape. Lights on," she said.
"I went down there twice and there's a morbid atmosphere. It's damp, it's musty, it's mouldy."
Fritzl's lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, who has argued his client was trying only to create a second family, maintained he was no monster.
"If you only lock up your daughter to have sex with her, you're not going to have any children, you're not going to get schoolbooks (for them) or a Christmas tree."
Three of the children had been brought to live with Fritzl and his wife, but the three other surviving ones spent their entire lives in the dungeon, never seeing daylight until their release in April. Authorities are trying to organise a new life for them under a new identity.
The trial is expected to last until Friday.
Source: https://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,,25198755-5006301,00.html
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