ST. POELTEN, Austria — Josef Fritzl abruptly pleaded guilty to all of the charges against him Wednesday — a surprising twist amid disclosures that the daughter he imprisoned for 24 years in a dungeon where she bore him seven children secretly sat in on the trial.
Fritzl calmly acknowledged his guilt, including to homicide, and said his change of heart came after hearing his daughter’s heart-rending videotaped testimony.
“I declare myself guilty to the charges in the indictment,” Fritzl, 73, told a panel of judges, referring to what he called “my sick behavior.”
Fritzl was charged with negligent homicide in the death of an infant boy as well as enslavement, rape, incest, forced imprisonment and coercion. Initially he pleaded guilty to incest and forced imprisonment, and partially guilty to rape and coercion.
Verdicts and sentences were expected today. He could face up to life in prison.
Fritzl’s daughter Elisabeth was the prosecution’s key witness. Now 42, she was 18 when he imprisoned her in the squalid, windowless cell he built beneath the family’s home in the town of Amstetten, where he raped her for years, sometimes in front of the children.
Asked by the judge what led him to change his mind, Fritzl said it was Elisabeth’s testimony. Fritzl, jurors and others in court viewed 11 hours of her videotaped statement during closed-door sessions Monday and Tuesday, but officials were not allowed to provide details.
However, a person familiar with the trial told The Associated Press that Elisabeth herself was in court both days, when the public and media were excluded — suggesting her presence might have unnerved Fritzl and prompted him to change his pleas. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because discussion of the closed proceedings was not authorized.
The homicide charge came for the death of a 2-day-old twin boy, Michael, born to Elisabeth in April 1996. Prosecutors say he might have survived with proper medical care had he and his mother not been locked in the basement.
Elisabeth and her six surviving children, who range in age from 6 to 20, have spent months recovering in a psychiatric clinic and at a secret location. Prosecutors have described her as a “broken” woman.
Police say DNA tests prove Fritzl is the biological father of all six surviving children, three of whom never saw daylight until the crime was exposed 11 months ago.
