Father had previous sex crime convictions

AUSTRIAN authorities investigated reports yesterday that ‘house of horrors’ father Josef Fritzl had previous sex crime convictions as public outrage mounted over the incest abuse case.

A police file on Fritzl, 73, who has admitted keeping his daughter as a sex slave in a cramped dungeon for 24 years while she conceived seven of his children, revealed he had a previous sexual assault conviction, a local newspaper reported.

The paper said details of Fritzl’s previous conviction — and another for attempted rape — had turned up in a police file in the Upper Austria archives.