Austria's Fritzl gets life for incest, murder

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-19 23:49

ST POELTEN – Josef Fritzl was sentenced to life in a psychiatric institution on Thursday for locking up and raping his daughter over 24 years, fathering seven children with her, and causing the death of an infant son.

Defendant Josef Fritzl, left, stands in the courtroom after the proclamation of the verdict at the provincial courthouse in St. Poelten, Austria, Thursday, March 19, 2009. [Agencies]

"I accept the verdict," the 73-year-old Austrian told the court after the unanimous decision by the three-man, five-woman jury in St Poelten, west of Vienna. The prosecution also approved it, meaning the trial outcome cannot be appealed.

Court officials said Fritzl would return to St Poelten jail for the time being pending transfer to an institution for mentally ill offenders where he could get therapy.

They said his condition would be re-evaluated in 15 years and, in theory, if he were deemed cured, he could be released. But both Fritzl and his lawyer has said they expected he would have to spend the rest of his life incarcerated.

Fritzl had pleaded guilty in the four-day trial to incest, rape, enslavement, coercion and murder, by neglect for confining his daughter, now 42, in a purpose-built, windowless cellar under his home for almost a quarter century.

"I cannot do anything more about (what happened) ... I regret this from the bottom of my heart," Fritzl said in his closing statement at his four-day trial.

He initially denied the murder and slavery counts but reversed his plea after watching 11 hours of videotaped testimony from daughter Elisabeth screened in court on Tuesday.

The retired engineer was convicted of murder, the most serious charge, because the jury found he did nothing over a 66-hour period to seek medical help despite knowing the boy was in danger of dying from breathing problems.

Elisabeth's lawyer said Fritzl's remarks did not seem serious, suggesting he was only seeking a milder sentence.

Defense lawyer Rudolf Mayer confirmed reports Elisabeth had attended the trial on Tuesday and said Fritzl was "devastated" when he spotted her in the gallery as the video was screened.

Mayer said he had nothing to do with the plea change.

In her closing argument, chief prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser said Fritzl had degraded Elisabeth to "a condition of total dependence and treated her like his property."

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