Josef Fritzl barely quivered when he was sentenced yesterday to life in a prison for psychologically disturbed criminals. He was found guilty of murdering a boy, one of seven children fathered with his daughter, of enslaving her, incarcerating her, beating her and raping her 3,000 times in the cellar of the family home.
Fritzl, 73, said in a croaking voice that he accepted the verdict — there will be no appeal — and he was marched off by a phalanx of policemen to a cell that lets in more sunlight than his daughter Elisabeth saw in almost a quarter of a century.
It marked the end of an extraordinary trial, unusual not only for the depravity of the crimes but also for its theatricality. Courtroom 119 in St Pölten became for four short days a stage with one central drama: the struggle between a vicious, controlling father and his strong-willed daughter.
“She wants the accused to face up to his responsibility until his death,” said Eva Plaz, the lawyer representing Josef Fritzl’s victims, speaking on behalf of Elisabeth. That was Ms Plaz’s only comment in the whole trial but it ranked as perhaps the most decisive moment.
It’s payback time for daughter as Josef Fritzl is incarcerated
