Austrian 'admits daughter abuse' (BBC News)

A 73-year-old Austrian man has confessed to imprisoning his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathering her seven children, police have said. The head of the criminal affairs bureau in the province of Lower Austria, Franz Polzer, told the BBC that Josef F had confessed during questioning on Monday. Authorities are caring for the daughter and her six surviving children. Police have released photos of the man's basement which showed a concealed network of tiny windowless chambers. The rooms, covering an area of approximately 60 sq-metres, were equipped for sleeping and cooking, and with sanitary facilities. "Everything was very, very narrow and the victim herself, the mother of these six or seven children, told us that this was being continually enlarged over the years," a spokesman said. Shock and disbelief Mr Polzer told the BBC that Josef had admitted to sexually abusing his daughter, named only as Elisabeth F, repeatedly during the time he imprisoned her. He said Josef had told investigators that one of their children had died in infancy and that he had taken the body and thrown it into an incinerator in the building. The police questioning is continuing and is expected to last a long time, he added. On Sunday evening, police confirmed they had found the cellar where Elisabeth was allegedly held along with three of her children. Three other children were adopted or fostered by the suspect. His wife, Rosemarie, appears to have been unaware of the alleged crimes. Police found the cellar after Josef gave them a code to unlock the hidden door. Small search teams of policemen, some in protective suits, have been seen going in and out of the house in the small town of Amstetten, about 130km (80 miles) west of Vienna, on Monday. The BBC's Bethany Bell says that among the neighbours there is sense of shock and disbelief. "You can't believe that this is happening here," one woman said. The case, our correspondent notes, is reminiscent of that of Natasha Kampusch, the Austrian teenager held captive in a cellar in a house in a Vienna suburb for eight years, who ran to freedom in 2006. While police are not connecting the two cases, many Austrians are asking how such matters went undiscovered, she says. The editorial of one of Austria's leading newspapers, Der Standard, said the whole country had to ask itself just what was going wrong. Hospital appeal In a statement issued on Sunday, police said Elisabeth had told them that her father had begun sexually abusing her from the age of 11. She disappeared on 28 August 1984 when, according to her testimony, Josef lured her into the cellar, drugging and handcuffing her before locking her up. Her parents said they had received a letter in her handwriting a month later asking them not to search for her, and it was assumed she had run away. During her 24-year imprisonment, Elisabeth gave birth to seven children, she said, including twins in 1996. One of the twins died several days later because it had not received adequate care, the police statement said.Elisabeth is receiving medical and psychological treatment and her children are in care, police said. Her eldest daughter, Kerstin, is in hospital with a serious illness. The 19-year-old's admission to hospital a week ago, after allegedly being hidden in the cellar with her mother and two siblings, sparked new interest in the whereabouts of Elisabeth. After Kerstin fell ill, doctors appealed for her mother to come forward to provide details about her medical history. Josef then released both Elisabeth and the remaining two children from the cellar, telling his wife Rosemarie that she had chosen to return home, police say. Police arrested him shortly afterwards and took the children into care, along with the three who had been adopted or fostered.

Channel: News & Politics
Uploaded: January 1, 1970 at 12:59 am
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Tags: Abuser  Admits  Austrian  Cellar  Children's  Franz  Fritzl  Home  Injustice  Josef  Now  Polzer  Prison  Secret  Stop  Torture  

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