New Home Video Of Sex Enslaving Father

Josef Fritzel, 73, who is accused of keeping his daughter as a sex slave for 24 years and fathering seven of her children, says he is not the monster that the media is making him out to be. Laura Diaz reports.

O austríaco Josef Fritzel confessou ter mantido em um relação de incesto com a filha durante os 24 anos de cativeiro. Elisabeth Fritzl actualmente com 42 anos foi fechada pelo próprio pai na cave de uma casa, situada a oeste de Viena, Aústria,. Da relação de incesto nasceram sete filhos. Um morreu, três encontravam-se a viver na cave enquanto, os restantes estavam a ser criados pelo suspeito e pela avó das crianças, que desconhecia a situação. Fritzel terá dito à mulher que os bebés foram abandonados pela filha do casal à porta de casa. O caso está a chocar a população de Amstetten. Uma mulher afirma: "é estranho que não nos tenhamos apercebido do que estava acontecer perto da nossa casa, que ninguém soubesse de nada" "Posso dizer-lhe que mal dormi. É inacreditável. Eu também tenho uma filha e o martírio por que passou deve ter sido horrível", garante um outro habitante local. Josef Fritzl de 73 anos, foi detido pelas autoridades na sequência da hospitalização de um dos filhos, em meados de Abril. Os médicos tentaram contactar a mãe, mas como não conseguiram foram iniciadas as investigações, que levaram ao caso de sequestro. As vítimas, que nunca viram a luz do dia encontram-se hospitalizadas. Elisabeth Fritzl que acusa o pai de crimes continuados encontra-se a receber apoio psicológico. De acordo com as últimas informações, um dos filhos - uma jovem de 19 anos - sofre de uma doença grave, alegadamente, relaccionada com relação de incesto.

A 73-year-old Austrian man confessed Monday to imprisoning his daughter in a windowless cellar for 24 years and fathering seven children with her, police said.

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"He has now said that he locked up his daughter for 24 years and that he alone fathered her seven children and that he locked them up in the cellar," Franz Polzer, head of the criminal investigations unit in the province of Lower Austria, told Reuters by telephone.

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Police said on Sunday that a 42-year-old woman, identified as Elisabeth F., told them her father, Josef F., lured her into the basement of the block where they lived in the town of Amstetten in 1984, and drugged and handcuffed her before imprisoning her.

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Photos were released Monday showing the basement cell where the women was held. It included a small bathroom and a narrow passageway leading to a tiny bedroom. Investigators say an electronic lock with a keyless entry system and a soundproof door apparently kept the woman from escaping the cell, which was constructed of reinforced concrete.

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Police picked up the woman and her father on Saturday near the town's hospital, where one of the surviving children was rushed unconscious with an undisclosed serious illness.

Woman alleges sexual abuse began at age 11

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In her statement, Elisabeth F. said her father began sexually abusing her when she was 11. Her father allegedly sedated, handcuffed and locked her in a room in the cellar on Aug. 28, 1984. She was reported missing a day later, and a month later, a letter surfaced, allegedly written by her, saying she didn't want to be found.

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Over 24 years, Elisabeth F. had seven children. She gave birth to twins in 1996, but one died several days later because of inappropriate care. The father has told police that he removed the body from the cellar and burned it.

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The CBC's David Common, reporting from Austria, says the story is causing shock and revulsion across the country.

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"It's a very embarrassing day for Austria," Common says, "because this is the second time something like this has happened here."

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Natascha Kampusch was 10 years old when she was kidnapped in 1998 on her way to school in Vienna. She was held by Wolfgang Priklopil for nearly nine years in a small dungeon in his home in the suburbs. Hours after Kampusch escaped in August 2006, Priklopil killed himself by jumping in front of a train.

A 73-year-old Austrian electrical engineer has confessed to holding his daughter captive in a secret, windowless cellar for 24 years and fathering seven children by her. The case, which centres on a nondescript two-storey building in the small industrial town of Amstetten, bears chilling similarities to that of Austrian Natascha Kampusch who spent eight years locked up in a basement before escaping in 2006. Some parts of the cell in which the family were kept were no more than 1.70 metres high and officials said the basement even contained a padded cell. Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, says her father, Josef Fritzl, lured her into the basement of the block in 1984 and drugged and handcuffed her before imprisoning her. Three of her children, aged 19, 18 and 5, had been locked up in the basement with her since birth and had never seen sunlight, police said, raising worries about their physical and mental state. The younger two were boys, the eldest a girl. Three other children -- two girls and one boy -- were brought up by Josef and his wife. As well as confessing to locking up his daughter for 24 years and siring the seven children, Fritzl also admitted to burning the body of the seventh child in the heating system when it died soon after birth, said Franz Polzer, head of criminal investigations in the state of Lower Austria. Fritzl had hidden the entrance to the cell behind shelves and only he knew the secret code for the reinforced concrete door, said officials. The case unfolded when the 19-year-old girl became seriously ill and was taken to hospital, prompting doctors to appeal for the girl's mother to come forward to provide more details about her medical history. Fritzl then brought Elisabeth and her remaining two children out of the basement, telling his wife their "missing" daughter had chosen to return home, police said. Elisabeth agreed to make a comprehensive statement to the police after receiving assurances she would have no further contact with her father, who she said abused her from the age of 11. Another puzzle is how Josef's wife Rosemarie could have been unaware of what was going on. Police have said they believe Rosemarie did not know what happened to her daughter when she disappeared in 1984.

Austrian police are investigating whether the unsolved killing of a young woman in 1986 is connected to a man who confessed this week to holding his daughter captive in his basement for 24 years and fathering her seven children.

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The body of 17-year-old Martina Posch was discovered near a vacation property owned by Josef Fritzl's wife 10 days after the teen disappeared in 1986. Upper Austrian police Chief Alois Lissl said there were no concrete links in the case, but police are checking whether Fritzl had an alibi.

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Posch's body is reportedly being exhumed so DNA tests can be conducted, according to freelance journalist David Hill, who named Fritzl as the main suspect in the unsolved case. Authorities did not confirm the report.

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Meanwhile, more details have emerged about the three children taken from the basement cell in Amstetten, west of Vienna, where police say Elisabeth Fritzl was kept hostage and repeatedly raped since her disappearance in 1984 at age 18.

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DNA test results released Tuesday confirmed that her father also fathered her seven children.

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The three children kept in captivity, now aged 19, 18 and 5, had never left the tiny, cramped cellar where they were born, according to authorities.

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"They've all got a very hunched-over posture from being kept in a very low-ceilinged room," Hill told CBC News on Wednesday.

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"They're suffering from really a bad vitamin D deficiency, so they have an albino appearance - their hair is white, as is their skin."

Children said to have communication problems

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Police who have been in contact with the children said they had trouble communicating, using "more like kind of an animal growling than actual words," Hill said.

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Three other children born in the basement were raised by Fritzl, 73, and his wife Rosemarie, who according to police was unaware of her daughter's existence just one floor below. Another child died shortly after it was born.

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Fritzl also admitted to having burned the baby's body, and said he locked his daughter in the cellar when she was 18, repeatedly had sex with her and fathered seven children, Franz Polzer, head of the criminal investigations unit in the province of Lower Austria, said Tuesday.

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He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on rape charges. Prosecutors say they are investigating whether Fritzl can be charged with "murder through failure to act" in connection with the infant's death, which carries a maximum term of 20 years.

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Elisabeth, now 42, reconnected Tuesday with her mother, who was told by Fritzl in 1984 that their daughter had run away to join a religious cult and later sent back three of her children to be raised by her parents.

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Psychologists observing the emotional reunion concluded that Rosemarie was unaware her daughter was being held in captivity.

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Two of the three children kept in captivity also reunited with their siblings Tuesday, while the third remained hospitalized. Officials said Elisabeth and her children are receiving psychiatric treatment.

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The case came to light last week when Elisabeth's eldest child became ill and was taken to hospital by Fritzl. Having persuaded her father to let her meet doctors in her first trip outside the basement in 24 years, Elisabeth was finally able to reveal her ordeal to police and medical personnel.

Amid the continuing shock of what has been dubbed Austria's "house of horrors", commentators are asking how the appalling events went unnoticed for so long. Josef Fritzel has admitted locking up his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathering seven children by incest. Three of the children lived upstairs, brought up by Fritzel's wife, who claims she was not aware of the imprisonment. Officials in Amstetten say social workers provided positive reports on the children who lived upstairs, after being told they had been left on the doorstep, supposedly by a daughter who had run off to join a cult. Observers are demanding how was it possible that no one heard or saw anything, especially as Fritzel had built extensions to the cellar. Fritzel's daughter and three other children she had by him were kept downstairs, and it is claimed that one died soon after birth. Fritzel says he burnt the body. Students who went to school with one of the children raised upstairs, described the girl as a bit strange and emotional. They say they only spent a few hours a day with her, because she was not allowed outside for long periods.

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A 73-year-old Austrian electrical engineer has confessed to holding his daughter captive in a secret, windowless cellar for 24 years and fathering seven children by her, police said on Monday (April 28). The case, centred on a nondescript two-storey building in the small industrial town of Amstetten, bears chilling similarities to that of Austrian Natascha Kampusch who spent eight years locked up in a basement before escaping in 2006. Some parts of the 60 square metre basement in which the family were kept were no more than 1.70 metres (5 ft 6 in) high and officials said the basement even contained a padded cell. Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, says her father, Josef Fritzl, lured her into the basement of the block in 1984 and drugged and handcuffed her before imprisoning her. Three of her children, aged 19, 18 and five, had been locked up in the basement with her since birth and had never seen sunlight, police said, raising worries about their physical and mental state. The younger two were boys, the eldest a girl. The case unfolded when the 19-year-old girl became seriously ill and was taken to hospital, prompting doctors to appeal for her mother to come forward to provide more details about her medical history. Franz Polzer, head of the criminal investigations unit in the province of Lower Austria told reporters that Fritzl confessed in front of criminal officers to imprisoning his daughter. As well as confessing to locking up his daughter for 24 years and fathering the seven...

April 29, 2008: An Austrian man has confessed to keeping his own daughter as a sex slave for 24 years and fathering her seven children.

Malgré les aveux de cet Autrichien qui a séquestré et violé sa fille pendant 24 ans, les enquêteurs multiplient les appels à témoins... (Jeudi 1 mai 2008 à 12h00)