Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
My Profile
Top News
Reuters top ten news stories delivered to your inbox each day.
Subscribe
You are here:
Home
>
News
>
International
>
Article
Home
Business & Finance
News
U.S.
Politics
International
Technology
Entertainment
Sports
Lifestyle
Oddly Enough
Environment
Health
Science
Special Coverage
Video
Pictures
Your View
The Great Debate
Blogs
Weather
Reader Feedback
Do More With Reuters
RSS
Widgets
Mobile
Podcasts
Newsletters
Your View
Make Reuters My Homepage
Partner Services
CareerBuilder
Affiliate Network
Professional Products
Support (Customer Zone)
Reuters Media
Financial Products
About Thomson Reuters
Austrian incest father set to go on trial
Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:06am EDT
Email | Print |
Share
| Reprints | Single Page
[-]
Text
[+]
By Sylvia Westall
AMSTETTEN, Austria (Reuters) - The concrete housing block where Josef Fritzl hid and abused his daughter for 24 years has nothing to distinguish it from others on the street apart from a faded police "no entry" sign on the back gate.
The garden next door is littered with abandoned toys and a brittle Christmas tree. The windows at the front of the building are decorated with children's drawings from the other families that still live there.
Fritzl, 73, who fathered seven children by his daughter Elisabeth in a soundproofed cellar he built at the back of the block, goes on trial on March 16 charged with crimes that sent a shudder of shame and revulsion through Austria and its town of Amstetten.
He is charged with the murder of a twin boy who died shortly after birth underground, the rape and enslavement of Elisabeth and with imprisoning her for most of her adult life and three of her children since birth.
According to his lawyer, Fritzl will contest the murder charge at his trial in St Poelten, near Vienna, but will plead guilty to nearly all the other charges.
Fritzl told his wife and neighbors that Elisabeth had run away to join a sect and he forced her to write letters telling people not to look for her. He could face life in jail.
"I have asked myself many times since how it was possible he could have hid what he did for 24 years," 37-year-old Regina Schoeller said, pausing from stacking shelves in a small store across the street from where Fritzl lived until last April when his crimes came to light.
"He was a man with two faces, one friendly and one wicked." Schoeller says she will follow the trial next week because of the shock the case induced in her at the time.
"But I am tired of hearing about evil Amstetten and evil Austria. It could happen anywhere in the world and it has."
The Fritzl case came less than two years after Austrian teenager Natascha Kampusch escaped from a basement where she had been held for eight years.
The chancellor at the time, Alfred Gusenbauer, rejected the idea that country was to blame for Fritzl's crimes, saying Austria should not be "held hostage by one man." Police said authorities had done their job and were not to blame for failing to detect the abuse.
It was not a case of people ignoring suspicions and sweeping unpleasantness under the carpet, Bernhard Sklenar, 39, said.
"Fritzl simply knew how to hide every single sign, just look at how he constructed the cellar so carefully, he thought of everything," Sklenar said, serving customers at a busy petrol station near the former Fritzl house.
Fritzl fitted locks on eight doors in the 60 sq meter (650 sq foot) windowless cellar complex where he said he lived his "second life," watching adventure videos with the children while Elisabeth cooked dinner.
Elisabeth has told police she was restrained on a leash in the early months of her captivity. Fritzl told police he had threatened to kill them using gas if they tried to escape. Continued...
View article on single page
Share:
Del.icio.us
Digg
Mixx
Yahoo!
Facebook
LinkedIn
Next Article:
Sri Lanka troops kill Tamil Tiger finance chief
also on reuters
Google turns voicemail into email
Video
Video: A recession start up company?
Economic woe takes toll on workers' mental health
More International News
Pakistanis protest while government scrambles
North Korea gives notice of April rocket launch
International aid workers kidnapped in Darfur
Iraq shoe thrower sentenced to three years in jail
Police focus on gunman's father in German shootings
More International News...
Related News
Q & A: Austria's Josef Fritzl on trial
8:51am EDT
TIMELINE: Austria's Josef Fritzl incest case
8:51am EDT
Editor's Choice
Slideshow
A selection of our best photos from the past 24 hours. Slideshow
Most Popular on Reuters
Articles
Video
Man with grudge kills 10 in Alabama shooting spree | Video
World's richest not so rich, Gates regains top spot
Apple rolls out talking iPod Shuffle
Q+A: What is behind the political turmoil in Pakistan?
Google turns voicemail into email
U.S. foreclosure filings rise in February | Video
Museum finds "secret" message in Lincoln's watch
45 percent of world's wealth destroyed: Blackstone CEO
U.S. jobless seen nearing 10 percent | Video
"Big Love" network apologizes to Mormons
Most Popular Articles RSS Feed
Video
High seas diplomacy
The German school shooter
Alabama shooting rampage
Grenade attack at Kiev rail station
A recession start up company?
Facing the Taliban
Obama: Optimistic about G20
Talk of the Town: Rihanna and Brown
An economic Grand Bargain?
Marine life danger after sea spill
Most Popular Videos RSS Feed
Tibet
Dalai Lama slams China over Tibet "suffering"
The Dalai Lama said more and more Chinese were beginning to see a problem with Beijing's rule over Tibet, lamenting how the homeland he fled 50 years ago had become a "hell on earth." Full Article | Topics
Heavy security as Tibetans mark Dalai Lama's exile
China's Hu demands wall of stability in Tibet
Question marks over succession of Dalai Lama
Factbox: Historical ties between China and Tibet
Reuters Deals
The global destination for corporate leaders, deal-makers and innovators
Knowledge to Act
Reuters.com:
Help and Contact Us |
Advertise With Us |
Mobile |
Newsletters |
RSS |
Interactive TV |
Labs |
Reuters in Second Life |
Archive |
Site Index |
Video Index
Thomson Reuters Corporate:
Copyright |
Disclaimer |
Privacy |
Professional Products |
Professional Products Support |
About Thomson Reuters |
Careers
International Editions:
Africa |
Arabic |
Argentina |
Brazil |
Canada |
China |
France |
Germany |
India |
Italy |
Japan |
Latin America |
Mexico |
Russia |
Spain |
United Kingdom |
United States
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.