New Revelations In Imprisonment Shocker
Cops: Austrian Dad Imprisoned Daughter 24 Years, Fathered 7 Kids By Her, 3 Of Whom "Never Saw Sunlight"
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Play CBS Video Video Pictures Of Daughter's Cell New pictures show the basement cell where an Austrian father allegedly imprisoned his daughter for 24 years. Charlie D'Agata reports.
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Video Austrian Held Daughter Captive An Austrian man imprisoned his daughter in a basement for 24 years, authorities say, and fathered 7 children with her. Allen Pizzey reports.
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Video Austrian Dad Admits Abuse Josef Fritzl has admitted to imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering seven of her children. Allen Pizzey reports.
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A photo taken by a forensic team and released by the Austrian police with permission of Austria's prosecution office on Monday, April 28, 2008 shows a view into a hidden room in a house in Amstetten, Austria, in which a woman is believed to have been held captive for 24 years. (AP/Police Niederoesterreich)
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A photo taken by and released by the Austrian police with permission of Austria's prosecution on Monday, April 28, 2008 shows suspect Josef F. at an unspecified location. (AP/Police Niederoesterreich)
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The outside of the house in Amstetten, Austria, where a 73-year-old man reportedly kept his daughter captive in the cellar for 24 years. DNA tests are being conducted to verify charges that he fathered several children by her. (AP Photo/Helmut Stamberg)
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Photo Essay Daughter Held Captive Austrian man accused of imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering her seven children.
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Interactive Sexual Assault Facts and statistics on sexual assault and rape, with victim resources.
The man, now 73, also told investigators that he tossed the body of one of the children in an incinerator when the infant died shortly after birth, said Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs.
"We are being confronted with an unfathomable crime," Interior Minister Guenther Platter said.
Authorities said three of the surviving children were confined during their entire lives to the darkness of their cell by the suspect, who Polzer said "managed to deceive everyone" until he allegedly confessed in police custody Monday.
The suspect, identified as Josef F., was an authoritarian who took care never to allow anyone near the cellar, Polzer told reporters.
The daughter, who is now 42, had been missing since 1984 and was found by police in the town of Amstetten on Saturday evening after police received a tip.
Police released several photos showing parts of the cramped basement cell, with a small bathroom and a narrow passageway leading to a tiny bedroom. Investigators said an electronic keyless-entry system apparently kept the daughter from escaping from the cell, which was made of solid reinforced concrete.
The suspect was expected to appear in court later Monday.
"He admitted that he locked his daughter, who was 18 at the time, in the cellar, that he repeatedly had sex with her, and that he is the father of her seven children," Polzer told The Associated Press.
Three of the surviving children lived with the grandparents and were registered with authorities. The other three apparently were held captive in the cellar with their mother, Polzer told reporters.
Hans-Heinz Lenze, a senior local official, said the suspect's wife apparently had "no idea" of what went on and was devastated.
"You have to imagine that this woman's world fell apart," he said.
Austrians - still scandalized by a 2006 case involving a young woman who was kidnapped and imprisoned in a basement cell outside Vienna for more than eight years - expressed disbelief at the latest case.
"The entire nation must ask itself just what is fundamentally going wrong," the newspaper Der Standard said Monday in a commentary.
Guenter Pramreiter, who owns a bakery just down the street, told the AP that the suspect and his wife would regularly buy bread and rolls, though never in large quantities.
"They appeared normal, just like any other family," Pramreiter said. "I'm totally shocked. This was next door. It's terrible."
The case unfolded after a gravely ill teenager was found unconscious April 19 in the building where her grandparents live, and taken to a hospital in the town of Amstetten, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) west of Vienna. Authorities publicly appealed for her to come forward to help diagnose the young woman's condition.
After receiving a tip, police picked up the 42-year-old woman - identified as Elisabeth F. - and her father on Saturday close to the hospital.
The Austria Press Agency reported that the surviving children are three boys and three girls, the youngest of whom is 5.
On Sunday evening, police said investigators had found the area where Elisabeth and three of the children were held captive. Investigators said the rooms were at most 1.7 meters (5 feet 6 inches) high. The area had a TV and small hot plates for cooking.
In a chronology of events outlined in a police statement, authorities said Elisabeth F. told them her father began sexually abusing her when she was 11. She told police that some years later in 1984, he sedated her, handcuffed her and locked her in the cellar.
Police said a letter written by Elisabeth had apparently surfaced a month after her disappearance, asking her parents not to search for her.
The Austria Press Agency reported that the surviving children are three boys and three girls, the youngest of whom is 5. DNA tests were expected to determine whether Josef F. is the father of the children as he claims.
Sunday's developments recalled another case that shocked Austrians in the summer of 2006, when a young woman escaped after being largely confined to a tiny underground dungeon in a quiet Vienna suburb for more than eight years.
Natascha Kampusch was 10 years old when she was kidnapped in Vienna on her way to school in March 1998. Her abductor, Wolfgang Priklopil, threw himself in front of a train just hours after her dramatic escape.
Kampusch, now 20, issued a statement Monday saying she wanted to contact Elisabeth to offer emotional and financial help.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 101 CommentsWhy buy into Tracy Morgan''s trolling? www.armchairsubversive.com says all there is to say about neo cons, incest and nasty sexual behavior. LOL
On this occasion however, and I make no apologies for it, I%u2019m going with those who believe that there just HAS to be a way of prolonging this guys life whilst inflicting great tortures upon him for as long as can be managed. This was not a crime against one individual in a moment of madness. This was a prolonged, calculated torture upon a young girl and her subsequent children lasting decades.
This was a crime against the humanity that we consider sets us apart from the animals.
If there was ever a crime that demanded that our global villagers take up burning torches with intent to destroy the evil among us%u2026.. this is it my friends.
I%u2019ve been trying to imagine what it would be like having my freedom taken away just at the point in my life when I should have been about to make the most of my freedom. Never having the opportunity to have friends, relationships (failed or otherwise), being constantly abused by someone that should have loved me and I should have been able to trust, no sense of self worth, never being able to take my children to the park, watch them in a school play or being able watch them enjoy life and grow as children should knowing all the time that there is a world outside that they might never see. I%u2019ve tried to imagine, but the pain that this poor woman must have suffered is beyond imagination.
This man definitely loved his daughter too much,and too often!!!
Posted by sean7phil
Easy, just see who voted "Republican" for the past thirty years, and you will have shortlisted most of them.
HOW HORRIBLE FOR THIS DAUUGHTER...I PRAY FOR THE LORD TO HEAL HER...THANKS TO GOD SHE HAS BEEN FINALLY LIBERATED FROM THAT DISGUSTING MAN...I PRAY FOR THE POOR CHILDREN...
THE MAN''S WIFE IS AS SICK AS HIM TO COVER THIS UP..YEAH!! YOUR DAUGHTER HAVING 7 KIDS IN THE TINY BASEMENT AND SHE DOES NOT HEAR NOTHING??? DOES NOT HEAR THE KIDS??? SHE SHOULD BE JAILED AS WELL!!!
Nothing New - With this story
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The Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq hit the headlines in April 2004 when details
of physical abuse and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers
were made public
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A prison located on the US military base in Bagram near Charikar in
Parvan, Afghanistan. The detention center was set up by the US military as a
temporary screening site after the 2001 invasion
In 2005, following well-documented accounts of detainee deaths, torture and
"disappeared" prisoners, the US undertook efforts to turn the facility over
to the Afghan government. But, thanks to a series of legal, bureaucratic and
administrative missteps, the prison is still under American military control.
_________
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba. (Reuters)
Mon Apr 28, 2008 8:03pm EDT
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Monday that the tribunals were tainted by political influence and evidence
obtained through prisoner abuse. (Torture)
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It really is a SICKNESS with you guys, isn''t it? You read about something that you disapprove of, and somehow you just have to blame "libs" for it! Here''s a clue for you a$$wipe: "libs" don''t believe what this guy did is an example of a "non-traditional family" and "libs" don''t approve of what he did. No sane person approves of some sick b@st@rd imprisoning and r@ping his daughter!
The simple fact of the matter is, you have NO CLUE what a "lib" is at all. The only thing you know is that you hate them, because you have been brainwashed to do so. And to your sick little mind, anything and everything else you hate or fear must also be a "lib", or be caused by "libs".
You have been led to this ruinous, ig.norant state by demagogues. Here is something written by David Mamet for you to ponder:
"The demagogue endorses the individual''s greed and hatred, and calls the practice enlightenment. The demagogue arises in times of uncertainty and allays the uncertainty with a lie: It is not that the world is a difficult place, but rather that some group is conspiring against you -- destroy them and all will be well."
Now, I''m just wondering if G W Bush has some of that Austrian blood in him.
935 Lies.
4053 Dead Anericans.
This shocker is nothing compared to the carnage wrought by Bush in Iraq - and all for profit too!
Maybe he snuck down there at night and when his wife was out. Or maybe he had a room that was his own and his wife wasn''t allowed in it. Needless to say they were probably starving to death.
There are some women that are doormats. They are ruled over by there husbands and don''t question anything they say or do.
I had a neighbor who had a wine room under his sundeck and he used to go in it every night and drink. He kept the door locked and also his wife never went in there anyways. He could have been doing anything in there.
I do think that his wife knew and probably just kept her mouth shut. 24 years is a long time.
Who was it Sgt Schultz "I know nothing".
The man''s wife had to know something was going on. How could he sneak food to them? Maybe the wife thought he was feeding a lot of rats in the basement?
Thank goodness these children are free at last.
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