Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who kept his daughter Elisabeth prisoner for nearly a quarter century, raping her repeatedly and fathering seven children with her, was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes, which also included manslaughter for one of those children he fathered. In Austria, however, prisoners with a life sentence are eligible for parole after 15 years—and as the now-88-year-old was thrown behind bars in 2009, his lawyer says he should now be released, though she'd like to see him placed in a nursing home, reports Sky News.
"I am already in the process of obtaining a conditional discharge for him," attorney Astrid Wagner informed a local news outlet, per the New York Post. Fritzl, who's currently being held in a high-security unit in the Stein prison in the town of Krems, reportedly has dementia, and a new psychiatric assessment on Fritzl says he no longer poses a danger to the public, according to Austrian broadcaster ORF. Wagner says her client, who has "distortions of reality," should be treated with "human dignity," per Sky. She also notes that Fritzl has "genuine, deeply felt remorse," and that a nursing home is a much better place for him at this point than a prison.
It's not clear when a decision will be made on the matter. Local media reports note that Fritzl now gets around with a walker after falling multiple times and "appears to be confused, regularly talks to a TV, believes he is a pop star, and discusses visits from family members that never happened," per the Post. Elisabeth Fritzl, meanwhile, who has since changed her name, is said to be living in a secure location in the Austrian countryside with her six surviving children, now ages 17 to 31. She's also said to have found love with a much-younger bodyguard who was watching over her.
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That relationship is believed to have helped her overcome the trauma from the decades of horror she endured at the hands of her father, per the Mirror. "This is vivid proof of love being the strongest force in the world," one of her psychiatrists noted in a report. "With the approval of her doctors she has ceased psychiatric therapies while she gets on with her life. ... She lost the best years of her life in that cellar; she is determined that every day remaining to her will be filled with activity." Josef Fritzl also reportedly changed his name while in prison, per the BBC. (More Josef Fritzl stories.)
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