Profile: Josef Fritzl

The story of Josef Fritzl, the man believed to have imprisoned his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathered her seven children, has been described as one of the worst cases in Austria's criminal history.

Mr Fritzl, aged 73, remains in police custody. He has not yet been charged. Police say he has confessed to the alleged crimes and that his confession is supported by DNA evidence.

They do not believe anyone else was involved in his daughter's incarceration.
The picture that emerges is of a man who led a double life. In public he appeared to be a respectable member of the community, living in Amstetten with his wife Rosemarie, with whom he had seven grown-up children.

But DNA tests have confirmed he had a second, secret family with his daughter Elisabeth, whom police say he lured into a cellar, aged 18, in 1984 and raped repeatedly.

She gave birth to seven children, three of whom he and Rosemarie adopted or fostered. Three children remained in the cellar with their mother.

Police say Mr Fritzl has also confessed to burning the body of a seventh child shortly after it died in infancy.

'Very intelligent'

Not one member of the family was aware that down in the soundproof cellar their sister had to live with her children.

Local social services have said that there appeared to be nothing suspicious about the family and that Mr Fritzl managed to explain "very plausibly" how three of his infant grandchildren had turned up on his doorstep.

Amstetten's local governor, Hans-Heinz Lenze, told Austria's public broadcaster ORF that investigations had not revealed any major discrepancies with Mr Fritzl's story that Elisabeth had run away to join a sect.

When Elisabeth was still a toddler, Mr Fritzl was convicted of raping a woman in Linz in 1967 and was sentenced to a term in prison. However, under current Austrian law, unless the crime carries a life sentence, a conviction must be removed after no more than 15 years.

Mr Fritzl and his wife did not have any criminal convictions on record at the time of the first adoption in 1994.

A qualified electrician, police described Mr Fritzl as "a very intelligent man" who had installed electric locks on the cellar rooms which could only be opened with a special code.

They say he locked the sliding reinforced concrete door with a secret remote control, and hid it behind shelves in his cellar workshop. Mr Fritzl was allegedly able to supply his secret family with clothes and food without arousing suspicion by shopping outside of Amstetten.

Police say he had an excuse to travel away from home as he owned some land and could shop in other towns and deliver goods to the cellar dungeon in the evening, unnoticed.

Domineering

Neighbours and acquaintances initially expressed shock at the allegations and said that Mr Fritzl treated his grandchildren affectionately and appeared to be a good grandfather. Former colleagues described him as hard-working and polite.

Police say Mrs Fritzl "had no idea" what was going on, and was devastated to hear of her husband's alleged crimes. Mr Fritzl was reportedly extremely careful to make sure no one went near the cellar where the dungeon was concealed.

Police say that they were told by Elisabeth's siblings that he had always been an "authoritarian and domineering father" and was controlling towards his wife. Former tenants who rented apartments in the Fritzl house also describe him as a strict father, and said his wife deferred to him in any decision making.

The only indication of his motives and psychological state comes from a series of conversations he has had with his lawyer, Rudolf Mayer.

Details of what Mr Fritzl told Mr Mayer have been published in News, an Austrian current affairs magazine. "I constantly knew, over the entire 24 years, that what I did was not right, that I must have been crazy because I did something like this," Mr Fritzl was quoted as saying.

He said he was driven by an "addiction", that "got out of control" but that he had tried to care for his family in the cellar as best as he could, taking them flowers, books and toys. He also spoke about how he would watch videos with his children while Elisabeth cooked them their favourite meals.

Mr Mayer says his client claims he locked Elisabeth up in order to protect her from the outside world: "She did not obey any rules, she hung around in dodgy bars all night and drank and smoked," Mr Fritzl was quoted as saying.

Mr Fritzl said that he started preparing the cellar dungeon "around 1981 or 1982".
"The cellar in my building belonged to me and me alone. It was my kingdom, that only I had access to. Everyone who lived there knew it," he said.

Mr Mayer has said that he believes his client is mentally ill, and should not go to jail, but remain in a psychiatric unit.