Josef Fritzl interview: What did the Austrian kidnapper and rapist say?
JOSEF Fritzl will forever be known as one of the world’s worst sex offenders of all time.
The evil Austrian, now 85, kept his own daughter Elisabeth captive for 24 years, whilst raping her and fathering her seven children.
What did Josef Fritzl say in his interview?
In 2008, just 10 days after he was arrested for imprisoning and raping his own daughter, Josef Fritzl did an interview about why he did what he did.
His lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, conducted the interview which he said his client had given to counter what Fritzl had called the media’s one-sided portrayal of him as a “monster”.
Fritzl insisted his initial aim had been to “rescue” his daughter.
He said: “Ever since she started puberty, Elisabeth stopped doing what she was told, she just did not obey my rules any more.
“She would spend all night in bars and come back stinking of alcohol and smoke.
“I tried to rescue her from this swamp. I organised her a job as a waitress, but sometimes there were days when she would not go to work.”
Fritzl said his daughter had tried to run away from home twice and hung around with “persons of questionable moral standards”.
He insisted: “That is why I had to arrange a place where I gave her the chance – by force – to keep away from the bad influences outside.”
The former electrical engineer, who was also convicted of rape in the 1960s, incarcerated his daughter on August, 28, 1984.
She finally found freedom on April 19, 2008 after Fritzl agreed to seek medical attention when Kerstin, the eldest daughter, fell unconscious.
But by this point her underground ordeal had lasted 8,516 days, with Fritzl admitting he had been planning her “cell” for sometime.
He said: “I guess it must have been around 1981 or 1982 when I began to build a room in my cellar as the cell for her.
He revealed how he equipped it with a heavy concrete and steel, electrically operated door with a remote-control combination lock, and added: “I then plastered the walls, added a washbasin and a small toilet, a bed and an electric ring, a fridge, electricity and lights.”
What did Frtizl say about fathering his daughter’s children?
In 1988, Elisabeth fell pregnant for the first time with their daughter Kerstin.
Fritzl explained how he tried to calm his daughter down by giving her medical books about childbirth and providing her with towels and nappies.
“It was great for me to have a second proper family in the cellar, with a wife and a few children,” Fritzl said.
In his interview, Fritzl denied allegations that he had threatened to gas his cellar family if they tried to escape, but he added: “I am sorry to say that I told them they would never get past the door because they would be electrocuted and die if they tried.”
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When was Fritzl convicted?
In March 2009 the jury at St Pölten court found him guilty on all counts – of negligent murder, enslavement, incest, rape, coercion and false imprisonment.
He quietly accepted the verdicts and waived his right to appeal.
Fritzl was sentenced to life in a special prison unit for the criminally insane in Austria’s Krems-Stein prison, where he remains to this day.