Austrian Fritzl sentenced to life

[Rasputin]

A 73-year-old Austrian is under arrest on suspicion of hiding his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathering seven children with her, police say.

The existence of the woman, believed missing since 1984 and now 42, emerged apparently after a teenage child fell ill and had to be taken to hospital.

Both the woman and teenage girl are receiving medical treatment and the other children are in care.

A police investigation in Amstetten, Lower Austria Province, is continuing.

The suspect, named only as Josef F, was arrested on suspicion of incest and keeping his daughter in captivity.

One of the children the man fathered died in infancy, police believe.

DNA tests will be taken to establish whether Josef F was indeed their father.

Placed in care

The alleged incest and abduction came to light after a search was begun by the authorities for the mother of the sick 19-year-old girl.

Since her discovery, her alleged mother, named as Elisabeth F, has been receiving medical and psychological treatment, police said.




She appeared "greatly disturbed" psychologically during questioning and agreed to talk only after authorities assured her that she would no longer have to have contact with her father, and that her children would be taken care of, they added.

The six children are three boys and three girls aged between five and 20.

Police spokesman Franz Polzer told reporters they had been taken to a safe location.

"They are all in psychological care in a secure institution in a clinic here in this area," he said.

"They are being cared for individually - those between 12 and 16 years of age who grew up with their grandparents, and two boys who, when they came out yesterday with their mother, saw the daylight for the first time in their lives."

'Dead baby burnt'

The police issued a statement giving details of the alleged abuses Elisabeth recounted to them.

She said she had been sexually abused by her father since the age of 11.

Josef allegedly lured her into the cellar of their house in Amstetten on 28 August 1984, drugging and handcuffing her before locking her up.

"Abused continuously during the 24-year-long imprisonment", Elisabeth bore six children while a seventh, one of a set of twins, died soon after birth.

The dead baby was allegedly taken out of the cellar and burnt by Josef.

Elisabeth said Joseph had provided her and three of her children, who were locked up along with her, with clothing and food.

His wife Rosemarie had allegedly not been aware of what was going on.

A police spokesman quoted by Reuters said the 19-year-old girl, named as Kerstin F, was dropped off at the Amstetten hospital last weekend.

"The girl is seriously ill and is fighting for her life," the spokesman said.

The discovery of another Austrian woman, who was held captive in a cellar by an abductor for more than eight years, gripped the country in 2006.

Natascha Kampusch finally escaped from her kidnapper, 44-year-old Wolfgang Priklopil, who killed himself shortly afterwards.

Ms Kampusch was abducted at the age of 10 in 1998 and held in a small, windowless cellar beneath Priklopil's garage in the commuter town of Strasshof, 25km (15 miles) outside Vienna.

[mike435]

damn talk about crazy

[Rasputin]

i am just askin... where was god when that girl was raping by this bad man ?!

[abadani69]

this is so sickkkkkkkkk!!! It's been on news all day. Can't believe he burned a baby in the Oven!!!

[mike435]

wtf oven

[Mazandaran]

Insane guy

[Rasputin]

Josef Fritzl investigated over unsolved rape and murder

It was also revealed that three children he fathered by his daughter Elisabeth evolved their own unique feral language, using animalistic grunting noises, as they grew up in their windowless dungeon.

Austrian police chief Leopold Etz said: “It is only half true that they can speak. They communicate with noises that are a mixture of growling and cooing. They had no books and the main source of education was a television.”

The children - Kerstin, 19, Stefan, 18, and Felix, five - had never been outside before they were rescued last week. When Felix first saw the moon he pointed and said: “Is that God up there?”

As they recovered at a clinic detectives investigating the murder of Martina Posch, 17, said she bore a striking resemblance to Elisabeth, who was imprisoned in 1984 when she was 18.

Miss Posch disappeared two years later and her body was found wrapped in plastic and dumped at Mondsee, a picturesque lake near Salzburg, close to where Fritzl, 73, and his wife Rosemarie, 68, owned a campsite and guesthouse.

Local police chief Alois Lissl said: “What really stands out is that Martina looks similar to Fritzl’s daughter. The likeness is incredible.”

Josef Fritzl investigated over unsolved rape and murder Police said they would ask Fritzl to provide an alibi and search his home in the town of Amstetten for Miss Posch’s belongings which were never found.

Fritzl has confessed to fathering seven children by Elisabeth but his lawyer Rudolf Mayer said allegations of rape and enslavement were “not proved”.

He said Fritzl feared for his life in jail and would apply for bail. He is refusing to speak to police.

Mr Mayer said: “He is a shattered and ruined man, emotionally broken.”

Police described how when Felix first saw a cow he made excited gurgling sounds. When he saw the sun he made a squeaking sound and covered his eyes.

He was petrified when taken in an elevator and stunned when a police officer talked into a mobile phone.

Detectives said Elisabeth Fritzl had done everything humanly possible to make life normal for her children, teaching them limited writing skills and singing lullabies.

The children have weakened immune systems, vitamin D deficiency, are anaemic and have cramped posture. Kerstin is in a coma and most of her teeth had fallen out.

The family have been given a secure home within the grounds of a hospital where the children are free to move around. Some of the children’s toys have been brought from the cellar. According to doctors the children said the first dinner they were served “tasted wonderful”.

Fritzl had placed a generator in the cellar so his secret family had electricity. There was also a washing machine and a deep freezer.

He led a double life, spending hours in the cellar watching videos with the children while Elisabeth cooked dinner in an oven. The oven was used to incinerate one of the children that did not survive.

Fritzl also took several sex holidays to Thailand, once leaving them for nearly a month. He was filmed happily being given a back massage by a local woman on the beach at Pattaya.

In Thailand he bought carrier bags full of presents for the children in the dungeon and an evening dress and underwear for Elisabeth.

[Rasputin]

Josef Fritzl refuses to cooperate with police

Josef Fritzl, 73, had signed a statement admitting imprisoning his daughter and fathering her seven children, but refuses to give details or explain his actions, detectives said.

He has also admitted disposing of the body of a newborn baby who died shortly after the birth in an incinerator, the BBC reports.

Mr Fritzl faces up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted of raping his daughter, among other offences.

Pressure is mounting on the authorities amid claims that bungling by police prolonged his daughter's imprisonment.

The investigation is being increasingly questioned by the Austrian public who have been shocked by the extraordinary case.

Franz Polzer, the police chief of Lower Austria, yesterday emphasised that Mr Fritzl had acted alone in imprisoning his family in the cramped cellar.

Mr Fritzl's daughter and her three children are currently starting their recovery in the grounds of a clinic where her critically ill daughter is being treated.

The children have weakened immune systems, vitamin D deficiency, are anaemic and have cramped posture. They are not able to use language properly and speak using animalistic sqeaks.

Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian who was held captive for more than eight years said the youngest Fritzl children would "pull through" even if the emotional scars were with the family forever.

In her first British television interview, Miss Kampusch told the BBC she wished the family "the best of luck and hope that they will pull through, and I think that at least the youngest ones will succeed."

Asked whether she was still suffering as a result of her own ordeal, she replied: "Suffering is probably not the right word, but it stays with you the rest of your life."

In a statement, she called for a wider donation campaign for the victims.

Even more important, Miss Kampusch said, was long-term support for Elisabeth Fritzl.

Asked by the BBC about cases similar to hers in Austria, she said that while she believed such instances existed around the world, she thought it was "also a ramification of the Second World War."

"At the time of national socialism, the suppression of women was propagated, and authoritarian education was very important."

[EverGreen]

That's not something new.

This kind of crap happens everywhere.

Remember the Australian 61 years old guy who had a sexual relationship with his own daughter and had a kid with her?

ahmagh hame jaye donya hast. pas dige chera taajob mikonid in chizaro mikhoonid?

[Rasputin]

That's not something new.


ahmagh hame jaye donya hast. pas dige chera taajob mikonid in chizaro mikhoonid?

Kasi ta'ajob nemikoneh,hame faghat miporsan keh touy-e in 24 sal, Khoda koja budeh,ha ?!

[abadani69]

I have been around. I have been just watching them what they were doing

JK

[Rasputin]

Sister-in-law reveals Josef Fritzl inflicted years of sadistic humiliation on wife

The Austrian rapist who imprisoned his daughter in his cellar for 24 years and fathered her seven children was a despot in the "normal" home he kept upstairs. He took sadistic pleasure in humiliating his wife with whom "he hadn't had sex for years", one of his relatives revealed yesterday.


Christine R is the sister -in-law of Josef Fritzl, the self-confessed rapist whose daughter and three children were released from their windowless bunker a week ago. She is the first member of his family to speak about Austria's worst recorded rape and incest case.

In an interview published by the newspaper Österreich, Christine R described the tyrannical manner in which Fritzl treated his68-year-old wife, Rosemarie, the seven children he had with her and the three from his incestuous relationship, whom he "adopted" and allowed to live upstairs.

At home, Fritzl, 73, was referred to as "Sepp", the Austrian abbreviation for Josef. Christine R referred in scathing terms to his marriage with her sister. "When Rosemarie married Sepp, she was 17 and had never had a job or learned a trade," she said. "He took advantage of that during all their 51-year marriage."

She said gatherings of the Fritzl family took place every year in rooms which, unknown to her, were only a few feet above the underground bunker where Elisabeth Fritzl and three of her children were being held prisoner. Fritzl apparently took pleasure in humiliating his wife in front of the other family members.

"He was relaxed and sociable with everyone in the family apart from Rosi," Christine R said. "He used to tell her off in front of the others. The worst things were his crude, dirty jokes, which he used to laugh loudly about. This was embarrassing for everyone, because we all knew they hadn't had sex with each other for years," she added.

Mrs R also described the atmosphere in the Fritzl household at 40 Ybbstrasse, in the provincial Lower Austrian town of Amstetten. "He drilled the children. Whenever he came into the room, they all fell silent – even if they had just been playing. You could feel their constant fear of punishment," she said. "The only way these children could escape that climate was through marriage and, as soon as they were old enough, that's exactly what they did," she added.

Mrs R confirmed reports that Fritzl had served a prison term in the Sixties for raping a woman in the town of Linz. Austrian police said the case is not relevant because it happened more than 15 years ago and that Fritzl's criminal record had since been expunged. However, Mrs R recalled: "I was just 16 when he was locked up for rape and I found his crime simply disgusting. At that time he already had four children with my sister. He was a despot and I hated him."

Beneath the rooms Mrs R saw at family events, Elisabeth was held captive in a windowless dungeon that Rosemarie Fritzl was forbidden to enter. "Every morning at nine, Sepp went down into his cellar, apparently to complete technical drawings of machines which he had sold to companies. Sometimes he stayed down there all night," she said. "Rosi wasn't even allowed to bring him a cup of coffee."

There is speculation that Fritzl might have had an accomplice, or at least somebody who knew what was really taking place. Alfred Dubanovsky, a lodger who rented a room in the house for 12 years, revealed yesterday that he had been introduced to another man who went into the cellar, who Fritzl claimed was a plumber. He said he often heard sounds coming from the cellar, but assumed that it was the central heating system making a noise.

[Rasputin]

Josef Fritzl 'threatened to gas his captives'

Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who held his daughter and children captive in a windowless cellar under his house, had told his victims that they would be gassed to death if anything happened to him, investigators say.

Police experts were today examining Mr Fritzl's house in the small town of Amstetten to investigate his claim that that gas would be pumped into the dank 60-square-metre cellar, said Helmut Greiner, a spokesman for Austria's Federal Bureau of Investigations

“It may have just been an empty threat to intimidate the captive woman and her children into not trying to overpower him,” Mr Greiner said.

Mr Fritzl, a 73-year-old retired electrical engineer, has already admitted that he imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth, now 42, in the cellar of the family home for 24 years, fathering seven children by her. Three of those children grew up with her in the windowless dungeon.

But in a separate development, the officer leading the investigation, Colonel Franz Polzer, said that Mr Fritzl had forced Elisabeth to write a letter last year which indicated that he may have been planning to release her from the cellar.

Colonel Pozler said that DNA testings proves that Elisabeth had written the letter to her family - who had been told by Josef that she had fled to a cult. In it, she wrote that she wanted to come home," but “it’s not possible yet".

“He may have had plans to end the captivity at some point,” the officer said.

Mr Greiner said that the police technicians were trying to work out whether Mr Fritzl had indeed installed some kind of device to pump poison gas into the cellar.

Experts were also examining another claim by Mr Fritzl that the heavy concrete-reinforced door to the underground rooms where he imprisoned and sexually abused his daughter, would have sprung open automatically were he absent for an inordinate length of time.

“That also may be simply an empty claim,” Mr Greiner said. Either claim could have possible implications for sentencing when the case comes to trial, because, depending on their veracity, the victims would have either have been able to escaped or could have perished, he noted.

In the first interview by a member of Mr Fritzl's extended family, his sister-in-law has revealed that the engineer often spent the whole night with his daughter and their children in the dungeon under the house.

The woman, named only as Christine R, 56, said that Mr Fritzl made daily visits to his cellar on the pretext that he had work to do and would tell other family members, including his wife Rosemarie, not to disturb him.

“Sepp [Josef’s nickname] would go to the cellar every day at nine in the morning and he would often even spend the night there. Allegedly, to draw blueprints for the machines he was selling," she told the Oesterreich newspaper.

"Rosi was not even allowed to bring him a cup of coffee."

Police say that Mr Fritzl began abusing his daughter when she was aged just 11, but held her captive from the age of 18. When she became pregnant from the abuse, he began to expand the underground dungeon from initially one room to three.

No one was aware of the existence of the dungeon, not even fire inspectors who routinely checked a heating boiler in the cellar in 1999.

The entrance to the dungeon was reachable only via a labyrinth of different underground rooms. The door itself, about one metre high and 60 centimetres wide, was reinforced with concrete and had an electronic lock that could only be opened with a remote control.

Mr Fritzl was a retired electrical engineer and police believe he had the expertise to build such a door and install it by himself.

[Rasputin]

حبس دختر هجده ساله، الیزابت فریتزل توسط پدرش در، به اصطلاح، مهد تمدن آنچنان جهان را به فکر فرو برده است که هنوز چندین روز که از افشا شدن این واقعه دردناک میگذرد، رسانه های گروهی همجنان در صدد کسب اطلاع بیشتر در مورد علل این حادثه میباشند. به تازگی عکسهایی به دست مطبوعات رسیده است که حکایت از عمق فاجعه دارند و یوزف فریتزل را در تایلند در حال خوشگذرانی و فارغ از هر گونه نگرانی برای قربانیان زیرزمینیش نشان میدهند. آنطور که رسانه ها به اطلاع میرسانند،

یوزف فریتزل هفته ها دختر و فرزندانی را که ثمره رابطه ناشروع با دخترش بوده اند را رها کرده است تا به عیش و نوش بیشتردر تا تایلند بپردازد. حتی زمانی که یکی از همراهانش، فریتزل را مشغول خرید لباس خوابی میبند که اندازه همسرش نمیتوانسته بوده باشد، با توضیح اینکه رابطه ای نامشروع دارد که نمیخواهد همسرش از آن با خبر شود ماجرا را فیصله میدهد بدون آنکه آن دیگری در صدد جستجوی بیشتر درباره اصل قضیه برآید – غافل از آنکه بهانه یوزف فریتزل در درجه اول چنان قابل قبول هم نمی نموده است.

گفته میشود که یکی از فوائد زندگی در مغرب زمین همین است که شهروندانش، به نسبت ما شرفی ها، کاری به کار هم ندارند، ولی این پرسش پیش می آید: تا چه حد باید به امور دیگری بی تفاوت باشیم؟ چطور یک نفر از اهالی شهر آمشتتن اطریش به این مرد مشکوک نشده بود؟ آن هم در مدت قریب یک ربع قرن و در حالیکه گزارش میشود که در طبقات فوقانی مستأجرانی زندگی میکرده اند که متوجه بازدید عجیب و پی درپی یوزف فزیتزل به زیرزمین ممنوعه شده بودند بدون آنکه پی دلیل برآیند. حتی یکی از این مستأجرین که به مدت 12 سال ساکن ساختمان بوده است مکالمه ای را به یاد دارد که فرینزل از منزلش به عنوان خانه ای یاد میکند که روزی در تاریخ ثبت خواهد شد ! ولی افسوس که هیج یک از این نشانه ها شک از اطرافیان را بطور جدی برنمی انگیزد.

این حادثه تداعی گر محبوس شدن ناتاشا کمپوش در همین سرزمین اطریش نیز میباشد که بعد از هشت سال از ربوده شدنش در سن ده سالگی توانست، بالاخره، در سال 2006 از دست رباینده اش بگریزد. ناباشا هم بمانند الیزابت در زیرزمینی تاریک زندانی شده بود.

اما این زیرزمین تیره و تار که به اعتقاد زوانشناس سویسی سی. جی. یونگ (1961-1875 )، سمبول ناشناخته های روان بشری است، اکنون، باری دیگر، دو چندان با رعب و وحشت عجین میگردد. علت چینن حبسهای زیزمینی نیزهمیشه مسايل جنسی نبوده است. چنانکه اگر به قرن نوزده برگردیم، اینبار در آلمان، با یکی ازهمجنان مرموزترین محبوس شدن ها در فضایی تیره و تار به مانند زیرزمین برمیخوریم : حبس مردی بسیار کوتاه قد و کم جثه به نام کسپار هوازر.

کاسپار زمانی که حدود شانزده سال داشت با نامه ای خطاب به کاپیتان فن وسنیگ در خیابانهای نورنبرگ دیده میشود. در آن نامه نوشته شده بود که کاسپار هرگز از خانه بیرون نیامده است و تمایل دارد که شوالیه شود. از نحوه سخن گفتن کاسپار معلوم میشود که به زبان تسلط کافی ندارد و سعی بر آن میشود که به او تعلیم و تربیت لازم داده شود اما علی رغم پیشرفتش و شرع ماجرا مبنی بر آنکه او در فضاِِیی بسته و تاریک ،بدور از اجتماع بزرگ شده است، زندگیش تا بدین روز با رمز و رموز آمیخته است. [i]

فیلسوف قرن بیستم فرانسه، گستن بشولر (1962-1884) درباره فضای منزل میگوید که منزل آنجایی است که حساب احتمالات را به بیرون پرتاب میکند و حس استقرار میبخشد. (بطوریکه) بدون آن، آدمی موجودی متلاشی است.[ii] پس چطور است که ناگهان خانه الیزابت فریتزل نه تنها به پناهگاه نمیماند بلکه عکس آن عمل میکند؟ او در عنفوان جوانی، در شرایطی که میتوانست به رشد و تعالی خود بپردازد – کماینکه گفته میشود علی رغم شرائط اسفناک زندگیش، فرزندانی خوشرفتار تربیت کرده است –آلت دست هوسهای مردی میشود که گرچه پدر اوست، اما بیش از آنکه حس پدری داشته باشد، به فکر شهوترانی با دختر نوجوانش است و منزل را، که عموماً یگانه مکان صلح و صفا محسوب میشود، گسترش میدهد تا فضایی بیشتر برای جرم و فساد داشته باشد.

در فیلم "قوانین خانه سایدر" محصول سال 1999، یکی از شخصیتهای داستان، آقای رز به دخترش رز رز—ظاهراً این اسم سمبول مصومیت دختر جوان است -- تچاوز میکند و دخترش که خود را باردار مییابد در صدد سقط جنین برمی آید. نکته جالب آن است که دخترش علی رغم آنکه با کارد به جان پدر می افتد، در آستانه مرگ پدر، با ترحم او روبرو میشود، چرا که آقای رز خواستار مسکوت نگه داشتن علت واقعی جراحات و مرگ ناشی از آن میشود و از اطرافیان میخواهد که علت مرگ را خودکشی علام کنند. حتی در این فیلم که برگرفته از رمان جان اروینگ میباشد، پدری که مرکب تجاوز به دخترش میشود، آخر کار سرشار از ندامت از این دنیا میرود.

براستی که گاهی خود زندگی از هزاران رمان غیرواقعی تر مینماید!

باز به سی.چی یونگ باز گردیم و نطرش درباره فضاهای داخل یک ساختمان. وی میگوید: باید ساختمانی را شرح دهیم که طبقه فوقانی آن در قرن نوزده ساخته شده است؛ طبقه همکفش در قرن شانزده و نگاهی دقیق تر به مصالح نشان میدهد که برج مسکونیی بوده است که از قرن یازده بازسازی شده است. در زیرزمین پایه و اساس دیوارهای رومی را میبینیم و در قسمت تحتانی زیرزمین، یک غار پر شده، که در پایینش ابزار سنگی و بقایای فسیلهای حیوانی دیده میشوند. ساختار ذهن آدمی به این ساختمان میماند.[iii]

حال این پرسش به ذهن خطور میکند که در ذهن آدمی چه میگذرد که او را قادر به ارتکاب جنایاتی از قبیل حادثه اسفناک اخیر در اطریش میکند؟ همجنین پرسش پیش می آید که چرا در اطریش؟ گویا اگر چنین حادثه ای در مشرق زمین رخ داده بود عادی مینمود، اما حال که در بطن اروپا اتفاق افتاده است غریب است! و اینها تنها نمونه ای از هزاران هزار پرسش است که این روزها، در پی برملا شدن جنایت اخیر آمشتتن، بسیاری از ما را درگیرخود کرده است.

[i] نوشته سنگ قبر کاسپر هوازر حاکی از این حس معمای همیشگی در مورد زندگی و اصل و نصبش میباشد:

Hic iacet Casparus Hauser, aenigma sui temporis, ignota nativitas, occulta mors MDCCCXXXIII:
اینجا مقبره کاسچار هوازر، معمای زمانه خویش میباشد، همانطوری که تولدش نا معلوم بود، مرگش هم معما میباشد – سال 1833.
[ii] The Poetics of Space, Trans. Maria Jolas, Boston: Beacon Press: 6-7.
[iii] Contributions to Analytical Psychology, Trans. H.G. and Cary F. Baynes. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1928: 118-9.

[Rasputin]

Josef Fritzl 'will plead insanity' to dodge prison

Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who fathered seven children with his daughter while keeping her locked up in a subterranean dungeon as a sex slave for 24 years, will plead insanity to avoid a prison sentence.

Lawyers for Fritzl, 73, dubbed the Incest Monster by local media will argue that he was not responsible for his actions and will try to acquire a certificate of insanity for their client.

Rudolf Mayer, a prominent Vienna lawyer who represents Fritzl, said: “In my personal opinion, Josef Fritzl is mentally ill and therefore not responsible for his actions. I believe that my client does not belong in a prison but rather in a closed psychiatry ward.”

A forensic psychiatrist has been appointed by the St Ploelten court, where Fritzl will stand trial, in order to asses his mental health and determine whether he was responsible for his actions when he imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth, 42.

But Fritzl’s lawyer Mr Mayer said he was convinced in that his client was “mentally incompetent” and that he would challenge any other decisions by the court psychiatrist and demand another expert opinion from a psychiatrist of his choice – a right granted to him by Austrian law.

He said: “If I would feel that the expert opinion does not correctly portray the personality of my client, I will order another expert examination.”

Mr Mayer also complained that he is receiving hate mail and telephone threats because of his decision to defend Fritzl. He said: “I am getting letters saying I should be locked up together with Fritzl. But I am not representing a monster; I am representing a human being.

“As I first saw him, the Latin term Pater Familias came to mind. It was used to describe the absolute head of the family – caring, but strict. Nowadays people would call that a patriarch.”

Meanwhile, it emerged that Fritzl, a retired engineer and real estate developer who was joggling with millions in numerous property deals, was financially ruined, with debts amounting to millions of pounds.

It also emerged that Fritzl’s wife Rosemarie, and well as his abused daughter Elisabeth and her six children, could end up on the street as there is a mortgage on the Fritzl family house in 40 Ybbsstrasse in Amstetten. Fritzl lived in the house with his wife and three of his children by his daughter Elisabeth – Lisa, 15, Monika, 14 and Alexander, 12 – while the other three children, Kerstin, 19, Stefan, 18, and Felix, 5, were forced to dwell together with their mother in a concrete dungeon in the cellar.

A local bank has already requested the immediate return of a loan of over one million euros that Josef Fritzl took out for property investments. In addition, authorities investigating his financial affairs have so far found mortgages amounting to 2.2 million euros.

On top of the horrors of abuse and deprivation, as well as the humiliation in the local media where they are known as the Incest Family, the Fritzls are now facing financial ruin because of their father and husband’s debts, as well as the high costs of the long-term therapy that are expected to exceed the million Euro mark.

Local charities are now setting up funds to support the tormented Fritzl family, while authorities are looking for legal mechanisms to provide immediate financial aid.

In a separate development, more chilling details about the family’s life underground were revealed by investigators.

According to Colonel Franz Polzer, Elisabeth, Kerstin and Stefan were kept in a single narrow room, designed to be a nuclear shelter, between 1984 and 1993, when their father and captor started expanding their prison.

Col Polzer said: “She [Elisabeth] said that there was only one single room at first. The dungeon was expanded as the children were getting born.”

In the nine months of her captivity, Elisabeth was kept tethered on an extended cable, resembling a dog leash, which only allowed her to reach the toilet but otherwise restricted her movement.

The life in the narrow concrete cube also meant that the children would witness how Fritzl would sexually abuse their daughter.

The children are now being treated in a local clinic together with their mother Elisabeth and their grandmother Rosemarie.

Doctors have reportedly installed an aquarium with goldfish for Stefan, 18, who is having difficulties speaking and moving in open space due to the years of captivity, and brought teddy bears for Felix, who reportedly has the best chances of recovering from the horrific ordeal.

Authorities have now stepped up security around the Amstteten-Mauer clinic where the family are being treated. Following several violent incidents involving reporters attempting to enter the premises – one of them reportedly dressed as an Austrian police officer and tried to walk in at the front door – the Austrian anti-terrorism unit Cobra have been deployed to secure the hospital.