Josef Fritzl: Monster of 'Amstetten' granted transfer from psychiatric detention to regular prison

Josef Fritzl, who kept his daughter captive for 24 years and raped her thousands of times and ended up fathering seven children with her, will be moved to a regular prison after serving his sentence in the psychiatric detention, a court ruled on Thursday (January 25).

The decision stipulates that the 88-year-old Austrian will have to attend regular psychotherapy and undergo psychiatric evaluations during a 10-year probation period at the prison, Austria Press Agency reported.

The three-judge regional court in northern Austria ruled that Fritzl, who now has dementia, can be moved to a regular prison as he no longer poses a danger. The ruling paves the way for him to be released from prison into a nursing home, overturning an earlier decision from 2022 when his request to be moved to a regular prison was rejected.

Friztl is known as the "monster of Amstetten" after the northern Austrian town where he locked up his then 18-year-old daughter in a sound-proofed basement of his house in 1984. His atrocious crime was revealed in 2008 and he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009 for committing incest, rape, coercion, false imprisonment, enslavement and negligent homicide of one of his infant sons.

Over the next 24 years, he repeatedly raped her and fathered seven children with her, one of whom died. Fritzl’s wife, who lived on the second floor of the home with the rest of the family, was allegedly unaware of what was going on in the basement, according to Austrian authorities.

Fritzl’s daughter disappeared in 1984 at age 18, re-emerging in 2008 from the dungeon-like basement chamber in Amstetten.

Fritzl's lawyer, Astrid Wagner, told The Associated Press: "In summary, the court has come to the conclusion that it is indeed the case that he is no longer dangerous." Ms Wagner said she planned to submit such a request next year for Fritzl to be released from prison altogether.