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Austria's Fritzl gets life for incest, murder
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-19 23:49


Defendant Josef Fritzl arrives for the last day of his trial at the court of law in Sankt Poelten in Austria's province of Lower Austria March 19, 2009. [Agencies] 

"Death struggle"

She said Fritzl committed murder because he had 66 hours to seek medical care for the infant son, whose breathing problems were caused in part by his umbilical cord getting tangled around his neck, but did nothing and consciously let the boy die.

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"He not only saw but listened to the death struggle of the infant -- for 66 hours," Burkheiser said.

Mayer argued that Elisabeth did not describe the newborn's fight for life in the journal she kept in the cellar.

Burkheiser also said Fritzl had demonstrated "unbelievable manipulation skills," for example by luring his daughter into the cellar by pretending he needed help carrying a door.

"Do not let yourselves be deceived as Elisabeth was 24 years ago," Burkheiser said, referring to Wednesday's confession.

Eva Plaz, Elisabeth's lawyer, said Fritzl's guilty plea should not be taken as a sign of remorse.

"Nobody knows the accused as well as my client (Elisabeth). I can say what you heard yesterday was no confession. Why did he only yesterday change his mind?" she said.

His expression grim, Fritzl entered the final court session on Thursday ringed by a dozen policemen. He was wearing the same rumpled grey suit with a blue shirt and tie.

Prosecutors said the children held captive had never seen daylight and had to watch Fritzl repeatedly rape their mother.

"The basic need was for power. It is about domination, about power, about control," psychiatrist Adelheid Kastner testified.

Fritzl's abuses came to light last April when he took the eldest child to hospital after she became seriously ill.

Elisabeth and her six children, aged 5 to 19 at their discovery, and three of whom were incarcerated from birth, are now living in an undisclosed location under new identities.

Three of the children were raised above ground by Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie after he told people that Elisabeth had abandoned them and joined a sect.