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Josef Fritzl Had Impregnated His Captive Daughter Eight Times, Indictment Says

by Gopalan on Nov 15 2008 11:15 AM

The Austrian cellar saga is now reaching the courts. The incest father, Josef Fritzl, got his captive daughter Elisabeth pregnant eight times, his indictment says.

She miscarried her first child alone in the darkness - a blow of such devastating magnitude she thought about committing suicide.

The 27-page Fritzl indictment - leaked to the media - also shows how he made her watch pornographic films with her in his secret dungeon and then forced her to re-enact the scenes for him in the rat-infested warren.

Fritzl, 74, was hit with a battery of charges this week including murder over the death of a newborn twin boy who died in the secret dungeon in 1996.

He burned the child’s corpse in the solid-fuel stove used to heat his house directly above.

Now it emerges that the baby named Michael was not the only child to die in the dungeon at the house of horrors in Amstetten, Austria.

The prosecution indictment reveals how Elisabeth was drugged in August 1984 and forced into the room that Fritzl had secretly carved out and elaborately hidden behind eight closed doors.

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He restrained her with chains attached to posts sunk into the floor – an 18 square metre prison where she remained for the following nine months. 

One chain went around her stomach and the indictment states that her movement in any direction was strictly limited.

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In the early stages he raped her usually 'several times a day,' according to the report.

In November 1986 she miscarried in the tenth week of pregnancy. She fell into a deep depression at this time and thought about suicide.

Quoting the statements of prosecutors, one newspaper reported how Fritz would allegedly force his daughter to watch pornographic videos with him in her underground prison and would then make her re-enact the film scenes.

He reportedly coerced his daughter into having sex with him 'several times a day' by 'beating and kicking her' to break her fierce resistance.

Elisabeth gave up trying to fight her father off because her 'situation was hopeless', according to prosecutors.

She was left to give birth to her eight children on her own. Fritzl's only contribution was a pair of scissors he lent her to cut the umbilical cords, a non-sterile blanket to wrap the infants in and a packet of disposable nappies.

'The deliveries took place in a contaminated atmosphere without a source of fresh air and no heating or hot water,' said he indictment.

Other family members would get ill over time but Fritzl only allowed them basic medication such as cough syrup, nose drops and aspirin.

In 1994 her captor expanded the cellar to 40 square metres. It also meant that for the first time those in the dungeon – daughter Kerstin and son Stefan - had the chance to shower and to cook their own food.

Until then they washed every day in icy cold water. By this time Elisabeth had been underground for ten years.

The charges also give more detail of life in the cellar - moisture in the air would constantly condense on the walls and dropped to the floor. There were even problems with rats attracted by the garbage that would accumulate underground.

He would turn the lights off for extended periods of time leaving her in the dark or starving her food if she did anything to annoy him.

He routinely did this if she rebelled and refused to act out his perverted sex fantasies.

He refused to buy her new clothes and she had to make her own garments out of sheets with a needle and thread that he gave her

After baby Kirsten became the first to be successfully born alive, Elisabeth was left alone for 10 days before Fritzl came down to see if they were healthy.

Later, after she gave birth to twin boys in 1996, Michael died after three days.

According to prosecutors, who based their charges on the testimony of Elisabeth, Fritzl noticed how the baby turned blue, was struggling for air and had swellings on his body.

However, despite his daughter's pleas, Fritzl refused to take the baby to a hospital and readily accepted his imminent death and only said: “Es ist was es ist” – what will be will be.

An expert in newborn babies commissioned by prosecutors determined that the baby probably died of an infection that could have been avoided or cured by timely medical attention, which would save his

The indictment says how Elizabeth was 'treated like a piece of property that could be used at will'.

Retired engineer Fritzl was charged with murder and enslavement as well as rape, abuse and illegal imprisonment. 

He took three of Elisabeth's surviving children to live with him and his wife Rosemarie, 69, while the other three had to stay with their mother and were never allowed outside until their release earlier this year.

The family - including Fritzl's wife Rosemarie - were then reunited in a psychiatric clinic near Amstetten, where they received counselling and medical care.

In an interview with the same newspaper, the sister of Rosemarie Fritzl, named only as Christine R, said how Fritzl's wife became estranged from the family and had to move out of the hospital without being able to see her grandchildren regularly.

Christine R, 56, said that Rosemarie has changed her name to avoid the scrutiny of the press, and that Elisabeth's three children who lived upstairs were going to school under false names.

'She is suffering from psychological problems but receives no help as she is not perceived as a victim.

'She is only getting less than 700 euros a month and must beg from sup port from the state. She even had to pay the administrative fee of 350 euros for changing her name. She found a flat but must live with relatives as she cannot afford to move,' Christine R said.

Rosemarie Fritzl reportedly told her sister that she did not know what her husband was doing in the cellar and that she regretted not informing the authorities when he started spending most of his time there.

She told her sister: 'I should have done something then. I should have sounded the alarm.'

Source-Medindia
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