Mar 16 2009
Monster Joseph Fritzl – Day 1 of the Trial – Fritzl Kept Daughter as a Sex-Slave and 3 Grandchildren Prisoners in a Cellar for 24 years
Monster Joseph Fritzl – Day 1 of the Trial – Fritzl Kept Daughter as a Sex-Slave and 3 Grandchildren Prisoners in a Cellar for 24 years
On day one of the Joseph Fritzl trial, Fritzl, 73, pleaded guilty to incest and partially guilty of rape but not guilty to the murder charge.
The murder charge was lodged against him for the death of his daughter, Elizabeth’s son who died in the cellar 3 days after birth.
The murder by neglect charge is a hard one to prove and as Fritzl has pleaded not guilty, it will be up to the jury to decide his fate on this one.
With only one witness, giving evidence on video, I just hope that the jury comes to the right conclusion on all counts.
The day started with Fritzl being led into court hiding his face behind a blue A4 folder. By Austrian law a defendant can bring personal documents into court and coward Fritzl chose to shield his face from his accusers with his folder.
He was there to answer charges of: Rape, incest, false imprisonment, Coercion, slavery, and murder.
The daughter, Elizabeth, that he held captive in the cellar for 24 years, had recorded 11 hours of video evidence for the trial and the jury got to watch some of it today.
It is said to be so harrowing that they will be watching small sections each day until the culmination of the trial. After the video evidence each day Fritzl then has a chance to a right of reply.
Fritzl had imprisoned Elizabeth in the cellar of the house when she turned 18 and started to rebel, he had lured her down to the cellar, drugged her and imprisoned her thereafter. Until then she had lived upstairs with the family.
She was first abused by her father when she was 11, and now at age 42, she recalls on video for the high security trial, the years of incest and rape which resulted in the birth of 7 illegitimate children born to her father.
Three of the children, Kerstin, Stefan, and Felix, were imprisoned along with their mother for the whole of their lives in the dark, cramped cellar which had no windows and insufficient oxygen.
As the press and public are not allowed into the trial for most part, there is a daily conference from the court spokesperson, where the press can ask questions.
- Today we were told that Fritzl’s behaviour had been polite and well behaved in the lead-up to the trial.
- That the other members of his family refused to attend the trial and offer evidence to the case.
- Fritzl is quoted as saying: “I had a very difficult childhood”. “My mother didn’t want me”. “I was beaten”. -
- If Fritzl is found guilty of the rape charge, he will get 15 years.
- If Fritzl is found guilty of the slavery charge, he will get 20 years.
- A case of slavery has never been to trial before in Austria.
- If Fritzl is found guilty of the Homicide charge, he will get life imprisonment.
- The other charges, including the incest charge, carry lesser sentences.
4 experts in psychological care and other areas are attending the case and could take the floor and give their opinion if necessary.
Monster Fritzl has been shown on video on holidays, at various points of the globe, smiling and enjoying the sun whilst his cellar family were back home, locked up, hungry and quite often without light in the airless, windowless, cramped prison.
Fritzl is reported to have said: “I was protecting Elizabeth from herself” I did it out of love for her”.
The jury alone will decide the verdict. Then the jury, together with the judge will set the term.
The case is due to run till Friday but it is now said it will probably finish Thursday.
It is thought that a deal may have been struck, a plea bargaining, which will allow Fritzl, when sentenced, to choose which prison he is housed at. -
This monster should not be allowed to choose his prison. He shouldn’t have a say in anything; he should be locked up for life, and as far as I’m concerned they can put him in a windowless cell and feed him once a week. What he has done is absolutely disgusting; the courts should go as hard on him as possible, and make sure that life really does mean life.
Joseph Fritzl is a seriously vile man, and whilst no punishment could ever possibly fit the crime or begin to make right what he has done; he should be punished as heavily as possible, and however they choose to sentence him he’ll be getting off lightly.
I look forward to reading your daily updates on the trial, and I just hope that Elizabeth’s 11 hours of video footage are enough for them to severely punish this sorry disgrace of a ‘human being’.
There is a punishment severe enough for this monster….