ST. POELTEN, Austria — An Austrian who fathered seven children with a daughter he held captive for 24 years refused to even speak to her for years, coming into the squalid cellar only to rape her, often in front of the youngsters, a prosecutor said Monday.
As his trial began, Josef Fritzl pleaded guilty to incest and false imprisonment, but he denied enslaving his daughter Elisabeth or murdering her newborn son. He pleaded only partially guilty to additional counts of rape and coercion.
The 73-year-old Fritzl faces up to life in prison if convicted of the negligent-homicide charge, which stems from the death of the 2-day-old baby boy, who investigators contend might have survived if he had gotten medical care. Incest, by contrast, carries a one-year sentence.
In her opening statement, prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser portrayed Fritzl as a callous and contemptuous captor who held his daughter in a filthy, cramped cellar that didn’t have a shower or warm water and repeatedly raped her in front of the children.
“For the first years, there was no communication. . . . He came, took her, left again,” Burkheiser said.
At other times, she said, Fritzl punished his daughter by shutting off the electricity — plunging the dungeon cell into darkness for days at a time.
“Josef Fritzl used his daughter like his property,” Burkheiser said.
Three of the youngsters grew up in the underground room in the town of Amstetten, west of Vienna, never seeing daylight. The other three were brought upstairs to be raised by Fritzl and his wife, Rosemarie, who was led to believe they had been abandoned by Elisabeth when she ran off to join a cult.
Police say DNA tests prove Fritzl is the biological father of all six surviving children.
At one point, his voice breaking, Fritzl briefly recalled his childhood and said life with his mother was “very difficult.”
Asked whether he had friends, he said simply: “No.”
Fritzl could face up to 20 years behind bars if convicted of enslavement and up to 15 for a rape conviction. A verdict could come as early as Thursday, officials said.
