Dungeon father's crime has shocked a nation to its core

AN ugly tangle of beatings, rape and the birth of seven incestuous children, writes STEPHEN MCGINTY.

IN AUGUST, 1984, while the rest of the world marvelled at the athletic prowess on display at the Los Angeles Olympics, Josef Fritzl, an electrical engineer from Amstetten in Austria, was concentrating on constructing a dungeon for his daughter.

The authoritarian and domineering husband of Rosemarie, a shy, nervous woman, and the father of seven children, Fritzl had secretly begun work on converting the basement of the family home, a large former farmhouse in the suburbs, into a private prison.

Concealed behind a shelf of cans and containers, he fashioned a secret door made of reinforced concrete, which measured one metre by one and a half metres, ran on steel rails and was secured by a remote controlled electronic device, which possessed the added security of a combination code. Then, after equipping the tiny suite of rooms with a bed, he pounced on Elisabeth, his 18-year-old daughter, and although he handcuffed and drugged her, she was still conscious enough to fight as he dragged her through the tiny doorway.

The date was 28 August, 1984. Elisabeth Fritzl would not emerge from her sepulchral ordeal of rape, beatings and abuse until 18 April, 2008, during which time she bore seven children by her father. Yesterday, Austria and the rest of the world was still coming to terms with a crime the police authorities described as "beyond belief", but which hinged on an elderly man's ability to conceal the monster inside behind an image of a concerned grandfather. Guenther Platter, Austria's interior minister, said: "We are being confronted with an unfathomable crime."

For almost a quarter of a century, Fritzl alternated between two families, that of his wife and their sons and daughters, who would eventually leave home, and that of his subterranean "family" produced as a result of incestuous rape. He would buy food and clothes on business trips to neighbouring towns and sneak down at night to the rooms he had soundproofed with rubber.

In the first few weeks and, probably, months Elisabeth screamed, shouted and beat her fists against the walls, but nobody heard. The story was spread that she had run off to join a cult and when her mother reported her missing to the police a file was opened with Interpol. After a month, a letter, apparently written by Elisabeth, arrived telling her family not to look for her. A strong, domineering man, Fritzl decreed to his family: "Nobody is allowed to go down into the cellar." And so nobody did.

The subject of repeated rapes, Elisabeth became pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl, in 1988, whom she called Kerstin. The "bedroom" where mother and child slept lay down a corridor so tight, Fritzl had to squeeze his way through sideways. A second child, a boy, was born the following year and Elisabeth would prepare meals for them on a small hotplate on supplies brought by her father.

Although the exact chronology has yet to be unravelled, it is thought that Elisabeth gave birth to twins in 1992, but that one of the babies, whose gender is not known, was ill and, without access to medical supplies, subsequently died.

Fritzl disposed of the body by incinerating it in the furnace of the family home.

The surviving child, a girl, stayed with her mother until she was one year old, at which point, Fritzl, perhaps concerned for space, took the child and left it on the doorstep of the family home with a note from Elisabeth, explaining how she could not cope. The girl was then legally adopted by Fritzl and his unsuspecting wife, Rosemarie, in 1993. In the years that followed two more of Elisabeth's children "arrived" on the doorstep at the age of one, a baby boy in 1994 and a baby girl in 1997. The children, unaware that their mother was only a few metres underneath their feet, attended the local school and were spoilt by their "grandfather".

Over the decades, Elisabeth cared for her two eldest children, who had never seen sunlight, teaching them to speak, but both grew up, pale, weak and sickly. A seventh child, a boy, was born in 2002. At one point a television was brought into their rooms and this was to prove their eventual means of escape.

Earlier this month, Kerstin, now 19, fell dangerously ill and her mother pleaded that she be taken to hospital. Fritzl agreed, taking her to the local hospital with a note from Elisabeth that, once again, she couldn't cope with a child. The doctor grew suspicious, police were informed and a television appeal asked for Elisabeth to come forward, as the medical authorities required her assistance. Elisabeth saw the appeal on the TV in her prison and begged to be released to attend the hospital to assist the doctors.

For whatever reason, Fritzl agreed and Elisabeth, as well as both her eldest son, now 18, and youngest son, just five, were freed. Father and daughter were picked up by police near the hospital on Saturday night and once detectives had assured her that she need never see her father again, Elisabeth began to speak of her horrific ordeal which had lasted over 24 years.

Last night, the wife of Josef Fritzl and her six other children insisted they knew nothing of what went on in the cellar. Elisabeth and her five other children are receiving psychiatric counselling.

Yesterday, during a press conference, one police officer said the youngest boy, five, was very happy. "He said he was happy to be riding in a real car as he had seen on television."

A 24-year-long ordeal and the children who never saw daylight

JOSEF Fritzl yesterday confessed to imprisoning his daughter for 24 years in a windowless basement cell and fathering seven children with her, three of whom "never saw sunlight" until they were freed over the weekend.

The retired electrical engineer, 73, also told investigators that he threw the body of one of the children into an incinerator when the infant died shortly after birth, said Franz Polzer, the head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs.

The Austrian authorities said three of the surviving children – aged 19, 18 and five – were confined during their entire lives to the darkness of their cell by the suspect, who Mr Polzer said "managed to deceive everyone" until he confessed in police custody yesterday.

At a press conference, police released Fritzl's full name and photograph. He has appeared briefly in court in the city of St Poelten, where he is to be held in pre-trial detention.

He faces up to 15 years in prison if charged, tried and convicted on rape charges, the most grave of his alleged offences under Austrian law, officials said.

Mr Polzer said: "He admitted that he locked his daughter, who was 18 at the time, in the cellar, that he repeatedly had sex with her, and that he is the father of her seven children." Three of the surviving children lived with the grandparents and were registered with authorities.

The other three apparently were held captive in the cellar with their mother, Mr Polzer told reporters.

Hans-Heinz Lenze, a senior local official, said Fritzl's wife apparently had "no idea" of what went on and was devastated. He said: "You have to imagine that this woman's world fell apart."

The eldest daughter of Elisabeth Fritzl was last night in intensive care and was described by doctors as in an "artificial coma". Medics said she was suffering from "cramps" in the brain, adding that she may not survive.

The case recalled another kidnapping that shocked Austrians in the summer of 2006, when a young woman escaped after being largely confined to a tiny underground dungeon in a quiet Vienna suburb for more than eight years.

Natascha Kampusch was ten years old when she was kidnapped in Vienna on her way to school in March 1998. Her abductor, Wolfgang Priklopil, threw himself in front of a train just hours after her escape.

Ms Kampusch, now 20, issued a statement yesterday saying that she wanted to contact Elisabeth to offer emotional and financial help.