Cellar incest victim to be questioned

Questioning of the incest victim held in an Austrian cellar for 24 years is set to start later this month, a prosecutor said today.

Prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek also said authorities hope to have formal charges against the victim’s father Josef Fritzl ready within a few months, which would allow a trial to start before the end of the year.

Fritzl has told investigators he fathered his daughter Elizabeth’s seven children; three raised in a cellar at his home in Amstetten, three brought up above ground, and one who died in infancy, officials said.

DNA tests confirmed he is the biological father of the six surviving children.

A doctor will be used to help determine how one of the seven babies she had with her father died.

Authorities claim Fritzl confessed to incinerating the corpse of the dead baby, identified as one of a pair of twins born in 1997. He could face murder charges if it turns out he was responsible for its death, Mr Sedlacek said.

Mr Sedlacek says Elizabeth’s questioning by a judge will take place in a special room at an undisclosed location.

Her answers will be transmitted via video to the defence and she will not have to face her father unless she specifically requests to do so.

At least two days are set aside for the questioning, Mr Sedlacek said.

Fritzl and his wife raised three of the children he fathered with his daughter after Fritzl claimed Elizabeth left them at the doorstep of the family’s home.