Full Fritzl horror revealed in 11 hours of evidence

THE full harrowing ordeal suffered by incest rapist Josef Fritzl’s daughter was revealed in 11 hours of video evidence yesterday.

It was the first time that Fritzl, 73, had seen Elisabeth since she was freed from the dungeon underneath his house where he kept her as a sex slave for 24 years.

The hearing was behind closed doors to protect her and a court spokesman said the details of her evidence were confidential.

But he said Fritzl, who fathered seven children by Elisabeth, “watched the video with great care and attention”.

Fritzl again hid his face behind a blue binder and stayed silent as he was led into the court in St Poelten, near Vienna, for the second day of his trial.

But he briefly dropped his guard and his picture was captured by media for the first time since he was arrested in April last year.

He has pleaded guilty to rape, incest and false imprisonment, but denies the murder of one of the children who died as a baby and enslavement charges.

Elisabeth, now 42, was 18 when he imprisoned her in the cramped, windowless cell he built beneath the family’s home in Amstetten.

Three of the children he had by Elisabeth grew up underground in Amstetten and the other three were brought upstairs to be raised by Fritzl and his wife, Rosemarie, who apparently believed they had been abandoned.

The court spokesman said her video evidence was recorded in front of both prosecuting and defence lawyers over several days, adding: “It was very stressful for the victim.”

Court staff said the video was halted periodically to give jurors time to recover from the harrowing evidence.

Four reserve jurors are waiting at court in case the proceedings become too much for any of the eight hearing the case.

The court has heard Fritzl used his daughter Elisabeth “like his property” after imprisoning her in the cell under the family home, prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser told the court.

For the first few years he did not even talk to her. He just went to the cellar to rape her and left.

After she gave birth, the rapes carried on in front of her children, Ms Burkheiser said.

She said Fritzl once punished Elisabeth by shutting off electricity to the dungeon underneath his house, and forced her to spend the first part of her captivity in a tiny space that did not even have a shower or warm water.

“The worst was ... there was no daylight,” Ms Burkheiser said, adding it was also “incredibly humid” in the cramped space and the air was stale.

She said Elisabeth was “broken” by Fritzl’s alleged actions and the uncertainty of her fate and that of her children.

Elisabeth and her six children have spent months recovering from their ordeal in a psychiatric clinic and at a secret location.

Tomorrow’s hearing will be open to the public and the evidence will include an expert psychological opinion on Fritzl.

The court’s three judges will then retire to compose their summing up which will be put to the jury on Thursday morning and a verdict and judgment is expected on Thursday afternoon.

Fritzl could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted of homicide. He faces up to 20 years behind bars if found guilty of enslavement, up to 15 for a rape conviction, and one year for an incest conviction.