JOSEF Fritzl, the Austrian accused of imprisoning his daughter, repeatedly raping her and fathering seven children with her, first planned to build his secret dungeon when she was only 12, police said yesterday.
Investigators have revealed they think he began plotting to build the windowless warren of rooms where he allegedly held his daughter Elisabeth as far back as 1978.
Fritzl confessed last week to police that he had imprisoned his daughter for 24 ye
ars. Of the seven children, one died in infancy and three remained incarcerated with her, never seeing daylight until they were released earlier this week. The others were raised by the Fritzls.
Police believe Elisabeth Fritzl was lured, handcuffed and drugged, into the secret dungeon in 1984, when she was 18. Her father is said to have managed to convince others – including, apparently, his wife – that she had run away to join a religious cult.
Colonel Franz Polzer, who is leading the investigation, said a total of eight doors fitted with sophisticated locks and electronics secured the underground warren of windowless rooms, with a main door weighing around half a tonne.
He said investigations had shown the apartment complex owned by Fritzl was originally built in 1890, and he applied for permits to expand it in 1978.
Colonel Polzer said it was believed the plans for that expansion included the secret rooms, because adding them later would have been far more difficult and expensive.
Col Polzer said: "We are working with certainty on the idea that already in the planning phase he had the intention to build a small space, a small secret, a small dungeon unknown to the building authorities.
"We can't just look back to 1984. We have to go back a few years earlier, to when construction apparently took place.
"The logic says the idea was already there, or an obsessive thought played a role, to build this jail, dig out these rooms and later to equip them and imprison the daughter there."
Although the heavy door guarded the main entrance, investigators uncovered a second one involving multiple doors, including one made of steel and protected by an electronic code, he added.
He said the underground area was enlarged after Elisabeth had her fourth child.
Meanwhile, Fritzl's lawyer has indicated he is preparing an insanity defence. Rudolf Mayer said he believes Fritzl has a serious mental disorder and that anyone with that kind of psychological illness "didn't choose" to do what police allege he did.
Mr Mayer said experts will have to determine Fritzl's mental state and decide whether the suspect can be considered certifiably insane.
If that is the case, and Fritzl is convicted, he would be confined to a psychiatric institution, rather than a prison, he said.
Fritzl has not yet been charged, but remains in pre-trial detention. Police reiterated they have no evidence that the retired electrician had an accomplice.
CATCH-UP: THE STORY SO FAR IN PUBLIC, Josef Fritzl, 73, appeared to be a respectable member of the community, living in Amstetten, Austria, with his wife, Rosemarie, with whom he had seven grown-up children.
But he led a sinister double life. Locals reacted with disbelief when police revealed that the engineer had confessed to imprisoning his daughter, Elisabeth, 42, in a cellar for 24 years and fathering her seven children. DNA tests this week confirmed his second, secret family.
Despite a conviction for rape in the late 1960s, Fritzl was allowed to adopt three of his daughter's children – she was said to have run off and joined a cult.
Three tiny underground "chambers of horror" were home to Elisabeth Fritzl and three of her children, who were all forced to live an isolated life, deprived of natural light and room to move around freely.
The rest of the Fritzl family lived in the house upstairs and were forbidden from going into the cellar.
The full article contains 656 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
