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Climate change sceptics 'as bad as Fritzl'
AN English bishop has compared climate change doubters to the Austrian child abuser Josef Fritzl.
The Church of English Bishop of Stafford, the Right Reverend Gordon Mursell, said it was hard to imagine a more disgusting crime than Fritzl's, who sealed his daughter in a cellar for 24 years, The Daily Mail reported.
"You could argue that, by our refusal to face the truth about climate change, we are as guilty as he is," Dr Mursell said.
"We are in effect locking our children and grandchildren into a world with no future and throwing away the key."
Authorities say Fritzl confessed to locking up his daughter Elisabeth for 24 years in the cellar below his home in Amstetten, Austria, repeatedly raping her and fathering seven children with her.
Investigators say he told them three of the children were raised in the cellar, three others were brought up above ground and one died in infancy.
DNA tests have confirmed Fritzl is the biological father of the six surviving children.
Dr Mursell, 59, a suffragan or junior bishop, tried to distance himself from the comments on BBC Radio 4's Today program.
"I don't wish to shock people unnecessarily and I am in no way trying to imply that people who ignore climate change are child abusers - of course not," he said.
"I am simply trying to use an analogy to get people to wake up to the consequences of what we are failing to do, because if we don't there won't be a future for our children either."
Dr Mursell has been criticised for his comments by social commentators and climate change sceptics.Comment
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do they report this stuff in iranian news? if they don't, they should! iran needs some scare mongering to stop its even continuing and growing brain drain.I love my Baghali ...Comment
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Fritzl worked alone: prosecutor
Austrian authorities say their investigation of the man who allegedly held his daughter prisoner for 24 years has turned up no evidence that he had an accomplice.
Prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek says 73-year-old Josef Fritzl, also accused of fathering his daughter's seven children, apparently acted alone.
From the start investigators have said there was no sign that Fritzl had help - even though some have questioned how he could have concealed his alleged crimes for so long.
Sedlacek said that forensics experts are still examining the windowless underground rooms where Fritzl allegedly held his daughter and several of the children.
The case broke on April 27, and Fritzl's family has been receiving psychiatric care under police guard.Comment
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Austrian Josef Fritzl, who kept his daughter in a cellar and fathered her seven children, has been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Fritzl, 73, was found guilty of all charges against him, including rape, incest, murder and enslavement.
He showed no obvious emotion at the verdict, telling the court that he accepted it and would not appeal.
The court ordered that Fritzl should serve his life sentence in a secure psychiatric facility.
The judge said he could speak to his lawyer but he shook his head. Then he was led out of court with an impassive face.
Fritzl's lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, said outside the court after the verdict: "He showed in his confession that he realises the dimension of his crimes and offences and as such the verdict is the logical consequence."
The life sentence was handed down for the murder by neglect of one of the children, who died soon after birth.
The jury unanimously accepted prosecutors' arguments that the child could have survived if it had received medical care denied by Fritzl.
The defendant first denied murder and enslavement but changed his plea to guilty after seeing testimony from his daughter.
Co-ordination centre
The BBC's Bethany Bell at the court says there has been an enormous amount of media interest in the trial, and its twists and turns have been enormous.
At the time of the first details of this case, no-one could grasp the extent of this man's crimes, she says, and Austria still has to come to terms with it.
Court officials said Fritzl would initially return to St Poelten jail, where he has been held in custody.
He will then be sent to a co-ordination centre, where it will be determined how dangerous he is and whether he is able to undergo therapy, before going on to the psychiatric facility.
He could in theory be released from the facility if he is deemed to be cured of his illness and would serve the remainder of his sentence in a normal prison.
In this case he will be eligible for release after 15 years.
'Limit the damage'
The Austrian imprisoned his daughter in a cellar under his house for 24 years and repeatedly raped her.
The daughter and three of the children were kept captive in the cellar until the case came to light in April last year, when one of them became seriously ill and was taken to hospital.
In his surprise confession on Wednesday, Fritzl admitted murdering by neglect one of newborn twin boys his daughter gave birth to in 1996, having failed to arrange medical care for the ailing infant.
The other three children were raised in the family home by Fritzl and his wife, after he told people that his daughter had abandoned them and joined a sect.
The daughter and her six surviving children been recovering from their ordeal in a psychiatric clinic and at a secret location.
Addressing the jury before the verdict, Fritzl said: "I regret from the bottom of my heart what I've done to my family."
"Unfortunately I cannot undo what I did. I can only try to limit the damage done as best as I can," he said.Comment
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