Judge: Incest Dad Should Stay In Jail

An Austrian Judge Decides To Keep Josef Fritzl In Custody Until His Trial

(AP)  An Austrian judge ruled Friday that a man accused of fathering seven children with a daughter he held captive for more than two decades should remain in custody, an official said.

The decision extends Josef Fritzl's pretrial detention by a month, St. Poelten provincial court spokesman Franz Cutka said. It was made during a routine, closed-door session required under Austrian law and will be re-evaluated in June.

Fritzl's lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, said he expected the ruling and did not object to it.

Fritzl, 73, was formally placed in confinement April 29. He had been detained three days earlier on suspicion of locking up his daughter Elisabeth for 24 years and fathering her seven children.

Authorities say Fritzl confessed to locking up his daughter and repeatedly raping her. Investigators say he also told them three of the children were raised in a cellar at his home in Amstetten, 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.

He is expected to be charged once investigations are completed. In Amstetten, west of the capital Vienna, detectives continued to comb through the vast Fritzl property for evidence.

Chief investigator Franz Polzer said his team was making good progress, but it would likely still take some time before the entire property and its contents were thoroughly examined and analysed.

"We have already come very far," he said.

Polzer said a yard search Thursday using sniffer dogs had not produced any results.

"We want to be absolutely sure ... this man exercised unbelievable violence," he said.

Fritzl's alleged double life began to fall apart when Elisabeth's oldest child, a 19-year-old woman, was hospitalized with a severe infection.

Unable to find medical records for the woman, doctors appealed for her mother to come forward. Fritzl accompanied Elisabeth to the hospital April 26 and was detained after she divulged what had allegedly happened to her.

In comments relayed through his lawyer and published in the Austrian magazine News on Thursday, Fritzl was quoted as saying he knew it was wrong to hold his daughter captive and that he "must have been crazy" for doing so. He added that he tried to care for her and their children as best as he could by taking them flowers, toys and books, according to the interview.

[trishab4]

CBS : Judge: Incest Dad Should Say In Jail.

-He should rather STAY in Jail, and say nodamnthing!

[tmittelstaed]

He needs to be put in the Leap Castle oubliette.

[fush2]

its awful to know that a human being knows what their doing harm to their own child and they still do it. then when they are caught they want to plead insanity? ok come on now we all know that your nasty *** knew all along what you were doing.hopefully he gets locked up with a bunch of guys who will take good care of him.

[angelzwatchz]

Jail or prison would be heaven to him I think he should live down in the basement in the no window padded rooms & wait to get food when someone brings it down there to him because he has already running water down there then have someone come down & rape him as much as he did his daughter leaving him down there for 24yrs

[guadalcanal3]

They should just lock him up in the same prison that "he built" for the next 25 years...No sunshine or daylight either...Unfortunately he gets get a few reprieves: #1. he doesn''t get raped...#2.he does not have to get pregnant..So it would be a quite merciful sentence for him and all those left wing bleeding hearts compared to what he did to his daughter.