Austrian incest monster Josef Fritzl “no longer represents a danger” but cannot be released for “special preventive reasons” and will remain in prison, a court has ruled.
The depraved rapist can be released into a normal prison and no longer needs to be held in a high-security facility for the mentally ill, the Krems Regional Court announced today.
The 90-year-old secretly imprisoned his daughter in a secret dungeon beneath his home between 1984 and 2008, during which time he raped her thousands of times and fathered seven children with her.
He was jailed in 2009 and sentenced to life in prison, but last month a panel of judges met to decide whether an earlier court ruling attempting to block his bid for freedom should be overturned, and his sentence was handed down today.
The court heard evidence, including a psychiatric report, which found Fritzl’s mental state had been severely diminished by his dementia, reducing his “dangerousness” and his ability to reoffend.
Josef Fritzl during the fourth day of his trial at the St. Poelten rural court in 2009.
The depraved rapist can be sent to a normal prison, the Krems Regional Court announced today, stating that he no longer needs to be held in a high-security facility for the mentally ill.
However, the judges determined that Fritzl’s “unprecedented” criminality means that “it cannot be assumed that in the future he will not be crime-free.”
They said there has not been enough “testing” done on him while he was in prison or on the day of his release to determine how he will behave outside of prison.
Fritzl will be on probation for ten years in a regular prison, meaning he could be returned to a higher security facility.
The court’s decision is not legally binding, according to an Austrian media outlet high reports, meaning it could still be revoked.
The regional court previously ruled in January that Fritzl no longer posed a threat to society and could therefore be transferred from a high-security prison to a regular prison.
This decision came to be seen as the first step in a process that could result in Fritzl’s full release from prison.
Prosecutors then objected to the lower court’s decision and the Higher Regional Court in Vienna ruled that “the facts necessary for such a conditional release had not yet been fully clarified.”
The Vienna Regional Court ruled at the Krems District Court that it had made the wrong decision and that Fritzl still had the potential for aggression and therefore remained a danger.
But last month, Fritzl’s lawyer managed to convince the Krems court that his client is entitled to all the benefits of Austrian justice, including release from a high-security prison if he is not dangerous.
An Austrian court granted incest monster Josef Fritzl parole from a prison for the mentally ill. He was pictured outside prison for the first time in 15 years when he arrived at court earlier this year (pictured).
At a hearing held on April 30, psychiatric and medical findings were presented, on the basis of which the court determined that: “Due to comprehensive and progressive dementia and physical deterioration, the prisoner’s combined personality disorder, which made admission necessary, has been “buried” in such a way that the prisoner’s danger is reduced and no crime with serious consequences is expected.’
Fritzl’s heinous crimes, including rape, coercion and imprisonment, sent shockwaves throughout Austria and Europe in 2008.
For more than two decades, he held his daughter Elisabeth captive in a narrow, moldy cellar beneath his house in Amstetten, which he built himself.
Fritzl, who changed his name to Mayrhoff in an alleged attempt to evade physical attacks from other inmates, was locked up in 2009 after admitting to raping his daughter Elisabeth (pictured) and fathering seven children with her.
Elisabeth and her children lived in the basement of the family home in Amstetten, while Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie lived upstairs.
Elisabeth, whom he abused from the age of 11, disappeared in 1984 when she was 18 years old.
He raped her thousands of times over many years, and the abuse resulted in the birth of seven children, three of whom remained in captivity with their mother.
One died at the hands of Fritzl, a matter of days after being born. He disposed of the body in an incinerator. The other three were raised by Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie.
Elisabeth lived in this narrow, dingy basement for 24 years with her children.
The discovery of his repugnant crimes came only when one of his daughters became seriously ill, forcing him to seek medical help.
Fritzl, who faced trial in March 2009 on a gruesome litany of charges, including murder, rape and slavery, was sentenced to life in prison.
Fritzl was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 for incest, rape, coercion, false imprisonment, slavery and for the negligent homicide of one of his young children.
