Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault and rape which some readers may find distressing
Rapist Josef Fritzl is already making demands about his living arrangements before being granted parole.
Fritzl, one of Austria’s most notorious criminals, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009 after pleading guilty to incest, rape, coercion, false imprisonment and enslavement.
The man kept his daughter Elisabeth locked away for 24 years, and started sexually abusing her when she was just 11.
Over the course of her captivity in the basement of her family home, she gave birth to seven children who had all been fathered by Fritzl.
Despite the extent of Fritzl’s crimes, Austrian law states that a person is eligible for parole after serving 15 years of their sentence – a milestone the 89-year-old hit last year.
With this in mind, Fritzl has allegedly already started making demands ahead of his possible release.
Despite his history of using a basement to abuse his daughter, Fritzl has requested that he has accommodation with one. He’s also asked that his home be near a train station as he’s no longer confident driving.
Josef Fritzl pictured during his trial in 2009 (APA via Getty Images)
“Every day, he dreams of having his own house or apartment,” the criminal’s attorney Astrid Wagner told local outlets, as per The Express.
As to why he’s insisted of having a cellar, it’s reportedly down to his many boxes of documents.
Fritzl’s cell is said to be cluttered with folders and boxes filled with files, and he’d want a basement to store them in.
After Fritzl became eligible for parole, the elderly criminal had a hearing and was initially granted permission to be moved to a normal prison cell from a special psychiatric unit.
The application was approved in January 2024, but by March it had been overturned by the Vienna court.
The notorious criminal became eligible for parole last year (SID Lower Austria via Getty Images)
“Contrary to the [assessment by the] court of first instance, the Vienna higher provincial court came to the conclusion that the facts necessary for such a conditional release had not yet fully been clarified,” the court said of its decision to keep Fritzl in a psychiatric unit, The Guardian reported at the time.
Fast forward to May 2024 and the court once more ruled that he could in fact be moved to a normal prison as they said that Fritzl was ‘no longer likely to commit a criminal offence with serious consequences’ because of his dementia.
It’s expected that Fritzl will apply for parole in May of this year – a year on from him being transferred to a normal prison.
If you’ve been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org.
Featured Image Credit: SID Lower Austria via Getty Images / Handout by APA via Getty Images
Topics: Crime, News, World News, Sexual Abus
Warning: This article contains discussion of child and sexual abuse which some readers may find distressing.
Viewers have been left sick to their stomachs after watching a film which depicts some of the worst things a parent can do.
True crime armchair detectives might even find this case too much as it details the shocking reality a teenage girl had to endure for decades at the hands of her sadistic father.
Set in Austria, the 2021 film is inspired by one of the most high-profile cases the country has ever seen.
Directed by Elisabeth Röhm, it stars Judd Nelson, Stefanie Scott, and Emma Myers, among many others.
The film shows a horrific father and his crimes against his daughter (Lifetime)
The plot focuses on Sarah (Scott) who ‘is a teen girl who is looking forward to her 18th birthday to move away from her controlling father Don (Nelson). But before she could even blow out the candles, Don imprisons her in the basement of their home’.
One viewer took to the Netflix Bangers Facebook group to say: “This is a Lifetime movie based closely on true events. It’s honestly horrifying.”
The themes that are shown include abuse, violence, sexual violence and incest, making it a very difficult watch.
The worst part is that it doesn’t include the full scope of the abuse that the poor girl had to suffer or the aftermath which she will have to live with forever.
One viewer wrote: “Tried to watch this the other day made me sick.”
Another added: “I am still traumatized by this movie.”
Girl in the Basement is closely based on the real-life case of Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned his 19-year-old daughter, Elisabeth, in August 1984.
The Fritzl case
The father initially asked her to help him to install a door in their basement, after spending months creating a dungeon underneath their home.
According to The Guardian, Fritzl received planning permission and partial funding from the government to carry out his plans as it was during a time of civil unrest, where a bomb shelter would be seen as a necessity to each family.
However, what he was creating was an area where he would imprison his daughter for 24 years.
On that August day, his daughter – who had threatened to run away from home multiple times – was helping him put the last of eight doors in place, which was reinforced with concrete.
Once she was finished, she turned to leave, only to have a cloth placed over her face and her world went dark.
Josef Fritzl was given a life sentence (SID Lower Austria via Getty Images)
Fritzl’s wife, Rosemarie, filed a missing person’s report when she realized their daughter had disappeared, but he convinced the police and his wife that Elisabeth had left a note claiming to be staying with friends, and did not want to be found.
During her time in the windowless, soundproof cellar, Elisabeth birthed seven children through incest – three of which went to live upstairs with Fritzl, three who stayed in the basement and one who died shortly after being born.
The case came to light in 2008 after a medical emergency involving one of the children, who were teenagers at the time, meant they had to be taken to hospital.
Fritzl was later apprehended and received a life sentence after pleading guilty to his crimes in 2009.
However, he could be released soon.
Elisabeth and her children were taken into the care of Austrian social services following Fritzl’s arrest and now live under new aliases.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues or want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, the Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.
If you’ve been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org.
