Josef Fritzl today dramatically changed his plea to guilty to all charges, including murder for which he faces a life sentence.
The 73-year-old retired electrical engineer admitted enslaving his teenage daughter Elisabeth from 1984 to 2008 in a soundproofed dungeon under his house, and in 1996 murdering one of the seven children he fathered by her by failing to take the newborn twin boy to a doctor when it developed breathing difficulties.
When Judge Andrea Humer asked Fritzl in court what led him to change his plea, he pointed to Elisabeth’s evidence.
“My daughter’s videotaped testimony,“ he said. “I’m sorry.” At one point he referred to “my sick behaviour”.
Yesterday Fritzl was forced to watch a lengthy and harrowing video testimony recorded by Elisabeth, detailing what he had done to her and the emotional and physical impact it had had on her.
One Austrian newspaper, the Kurier, has alleged that Elisabeth herself was present in the courtroom in person yesterday, sitting in disguise. She reportedly sat silently at the back watching her father and then left through a side door. If true, it could have piled emotional pressure on Fritzl, who professes to love her.
A court spokesman has however refused to confirm the report. BBC reporters said that there were people present in a private viewing gallery yesterday, but that it was not clear who they were.
The court also heard evidence yesterday afternoon from a neo-natal expert on whether Fritzl was indeed responsible for the death of newborn Michael, whose twin brother survived.
“I plead guilty to the crimes I’ve been charged with,” said Fritzl at the start of the day’s proceedings.
“When I saw the video tapes I realised for the first time how cruel I was to Elisabeth.
"I don’t know why I have not seen the baby would have needed help. I just overlooked it. I thought the little one would survive. I just want to say that it happened by accident and that I never planned it.”
In another departure, Fritzl entered the courtroom this time with his face uncovered, unlike the previous two days when he had hidden behind a blue lever-arch folder and refused to respond to media questions.
He had already admitted incest, and pleaded partially guilty to raping his daughter, but until this morning was contesting the charges which carried the highest prison sentences. He has now changed his plea to fully guilty on the rape charge as well.
Dr Franz Cutka, the vice president of St Polten court in Austria where Fritzl is on trial, revealed yesterday that Fritzl is on suicide watch, with a psychiatrist on hand to talk to him during breaks in court proceedings.
After his dramatic plea change, the court went ahead with testimony from Adelheid Kastner, a psychiatrist who interviewed Fritzl extensively during the year before the trial and has written a 130-page report on his personality disorder.
“On the surface, everything functions smoothly. But deep down, his unfulfilled needs are simmering,” Kastner said.
“He is aware - he says so himself - that he has an evil side. He is aware that he was born to rape. He has that partly under control. But as soon as he loosens his grip, everything erupts out."
Ms Kastner said that Fritzl's overwhelming need to dominate and control stemmed from his upbringing as the unwanted, unloved but intelligent child of a single mother. He had grown up determined to have somebody who belonged to him alone, she said. He was emotionally deficient but that he knew what he was doing what wrong.
“The danger is still very much there that he will reoffend if he is not treated,” Ms Kastner told the court.
“It is necessary that he continue being treated until he can no longer be classified as dangerous. Thus, the conditions are in place for him to be put in a psychiatric institute.”
Legal experts say the jury will still have to deliver verdicts despite Fritzl’s guilty pleas, although his confessions are grounds for a more lenient sentence.
After the psychiatrist’s testimony, the judges adjourned the trial until tomorrow morning. They will spend the afternoon compiling a list of questions, with simple yes or no answers, designed to lead the jury towards their decisions.
Closing statements from the prosecution and the defence will be heard tomorrow morning and the verdicts are expected in the afternoon.
Source:the times
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