6.5.2008
The
full horror faced by a daughter kept captive for 24 years
in a dungeon beneath a quiet family home, and raped repeatedly
by her monster of a father, emerged.
Extraordinary
photographs released of the windowless hiding place show
how electrical engineer Josef Fritzl concealed his daughter,
Elisabeth, now 42, and the children she bore as a result
of the incest.
Officers
investigating the Josef Fritzl incest and sexual abuse
case revealed yesterday that he started building the underground
dungeon in which he imprisoned his daughter six years
before her incarceration began .
Speaking
to The Times at a press conference today, Colonel Franz
Polzer said that Mr Fritzl had planned the imprisoning
and sexual abuse of his Elisabeth in astonishing detail.
“Fritzl
acted with premeditation when he began building the underground
cellar of his home in 1978,” he said.
“We
assume he had already selected his daughter Elisabeth
who was to become a prisoner of the concrete dungeon.”
Fritzl,
73, is accused of imprisoning his daughter , now 42, in
a purpose-built dungeon beneath his house, where he sexually
abused her as she gave birth to seven of his children.
Col
Polzer also revealed that investigators, who have so far
been focusing on examining the scene of the crime, Fritzl’s
three-storey family house in the town of Amstetten, have
found a second entrance to the dungeon.
The
500kg iron and concrete door leading to the second entrance
to the dungeon was so well-concealed and difficult to
open, that police had to use heavy machinery borrowed
from the local fire fighting brigade.
“The
door was hidden in a room beneath the stairs that could
be approached from the garden. The room resembles a setting
of a horror film, with countless pipes and electrical
cables and the door, which weights about 500 kg and is
only one metre high, is so difficult to detect, that it
is reminiscent of something from the Harry Potter books,”
Col Polzer said.
Police,
however, believe that the second entrance had not recently
been used, as the door was so heavy that it had become
impossible to open it during the last three decades.
They
confirmed earlier reports that Elisabeth was locked up
in a single room of only 35metres squared, with an improvised
shower and toilet for nine years, from 1984 until the
birth of her fourth child in 1993, when Fritzl expanded
the dungeon with additional two rooms to create a space
totalling 55msq. It suggests that her children would witness
Fritzl’s sexual assaults on their mother.
It
was also revealed that anyone trying to access the dungeon
would need to pass through a total of eight doors to get
there; all of them were locked and the last two were electronically
controlled. The second entrance, only discovered on the
weekend, was secured by four doors.
“Fritzl
planned every detail with astonishing precision. His diabolical
plan was almost perfect,” Col Polzer said.
Despite
establishing that Fritzl’s son Josef, 37, who lived
with his parents in recent years, had the key to two of
the doors in order to be able to access the boiler room,
police denied that he could have known about the dungeon,
as only his father held all eight keys and the codes necessary
to open the last two.
“There
is no reason to believe that this very energetic man,
who had focused all of his energy on his unfathomable
plan, would involve anyone in the realisation of his perfect
crime,” Col Polzer said.
At
the press conference it also emerged that Elisabeth, and
her children, aged 18, 15, 14 and 12, as well Rosemarie,
68, Fritzl’s wife, were in good condition.
Dr
Bernhard Kepplinger, the head of the hospital where the
Fritzl family are treated, said: “The family are
developing a good social interaction and their condition
is good and improving. The mother and the grandmother
are preparing the meals together; the children are getting
into a daily routine of making their beds and are spending
time together. The family gets together at breakfast and
dinner.
“The
skin of the mother and the three children that have not
been exposed to sunlight is now assuming a normal colour.
They are still oversensitive to sunlight but are improving.
Dr
Kepplinger also said that, during their years in the cellar,
the family was supplied with Vitamin D supplements and
even a UV lamp by their father, who also installed an
aquarium with goldfish in their dungeon.
The
condition of the oldest daughter, who is in an artificially
induced coma and suffering from a yet undiagnosed condition,
is also said to have improved and is no longer life-threatening.
In
a separate development, Austrian legal experts revealed
that the children Fritzl fathered with his daughter could
sue him for millions in damages, after it emerged that
their therapy after the decade-long ordeal in the dungeon
will cost over one million euros
Courtesy - timesonline