Josef Fritzl - The face of a monster

Elisabeth Fritzl was forced to help build the dungeon where she was kept by her sadistic father Josef, it emerged yesterday.

For the first nine months of her 24 years in captivity, she was also tethered with a 5ft dog leash around her neck to prevent her escape.

Elisabeth, now 42, had been sexually abused by her father since the age of 11.

She ran away from home at the age of 16 but was dragged back by Fritzl and locked up when he suspected she was planning to leave again.

For the first nine years, he imprisoned her in a grim 15ft by 15ft box room which had a makeshift toilet in one corner.

She told police that Fritzl forced her to help drag a 600lb concrete and steel door into position to seal the dungeon.

It was only when it was in place that she discovered she had helped to build her own prison.

Fritzl finally agreed to expand the cellar - again with Elisabeth's help - after she had given birth to two of his children.

He forced her to dig out the chambers by hand, working for hours at a time. The process took nearly a decade.

One of the new rooms was used as a punishment area and Fritzl would take his daughter there and rape her.



He also used it to chastise the three of their children - Kerstin, 19, Stefan, 18, and six-year- old Felix - who lived underground with her. Their siblings Lisa, 16, Monika, 14 and 12-year-old Alexander lived a 'normal' life upstairs.

Franz Polzer, who is leading the police investigation, said: "She said that there was only one single room at first between 1984 and 1993. The dungeon was expanded as the children were getting born.

"There are still areas we haven't found inside the dungeon and I expect it to take at least two weeks before we have answered all the questions we need to about how Fritzl controlled the areas and imprisoned the children.

"Areas of the dungeon appear to have been under construction and it is possible Fritzl may have been planning to expand it even further."

Austrian police said the air inside the inner chambers was so stifling they have been forced to drill holes to allow investigators to breathe.

The grim details emerged as police revealed that Fritzl, now 73, could escape justice by pleading insanity. A team of psychiatrists are due to examine him today at St Poelten Prison, after which he is expected to be officially sectioned.

Police want to see him die in prison but under the country's law the maximum sentence - even for double murder - is 15 years. That can be reduced to ten for good behaviour.

So far Fritzl is facing charges of rape, incest and kidnap.

Prosecutors also want to see him charged with murder following the death of his and Elisabeth's three-day-old child 12 years ago. And if Kerstin - who is suffering from multiple organ failure - dies, he could face another murder charge because of the delay seeking medical treatment.

Detective Inspector Polzer said: "We want to see this man die in prison. It will take a lot longer than ten years for his victims to recover from what he put them through.

"The man is evil beyond words. The misery he has inflicted on his family is unimaginable." But Fritzl's lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, said: "In my personal opinion, Josef Fritzl is mentally ill and therefore not responsible for his actions."

Fritzl is said to be obsessively watching TV reports about the incarceration and abuse of his daughter from his isolated cell.

He receives up to four bags of hate mail a day - but is said to remain unrepentant. His wife Rosemarie, who police believe was completely unaware of his double life, has also received hate mail.

One letter read: "You must have known when he went on holiday to Thailand that he was messing around with children. Your sick paedophile husband should kill himself."

Mrs Fritzl is living in a specialist unit in a psychiatric clinic with her daughter and five of her grandchildren.

Doctors have installed an aquarium for Stefan, who is having difficulties speaking and moving due to his years of captivity.

Elisabeth has been making secret visits to Kerstin's hospital bedside, praying she will recover.

But local priest Franz Halbartschlager, who was called in to perform the last rites on the sick teenager soon after she arrived in hospital, said Kerstin was 'pale and thin'.

'She was in a coma between life and death,' he said after his visit last month. "I prayed for her."

Rosemarie's sister Christine said that the family was struggling to comprehend what had happened.

She added: "My sister is doing very badly and Elisabeth is not in the best shape either.

"I know my sister and when something is wrong with her children the world collapses. For sure, the world has collapsed for her."

She said she was sure her sister did not know what was going on in the cellar of the family's house.

"We spoke about it often when we met. And I would say, 'Rosemarie, where can Elisabeth be?' I even told her myself, she is definitely in a cult."

In police interviews, Elisabeth said that at the start she had fought against the imprisonment, banging on the walls and screaming until she could no longer speak, but no one had come as the weeks turned into months, and the years into decades.

She said she had eventually stopped arguing with her father who in turn had stopped beating her as frequently.

Eventually she had become pregnant with Kerstin, now 19, and she had informed her father - fearing that he would be furious because he would now have to release her to go to hospital.

He had reportedly replied: "Do not think you are getting away from me so easily."

Details of the birth have not been spoken about by Elisabeth but afterwards Fritzl had continued to return frequently for more sex, at least once every three days.

After Kerstin there were further children, Stefan, 18, Lisa, 16 Monika, 15, Alexander, 12, whose twin brother died from neglect before he could even be given a name, and finally Felix, 5.

Elisabeth remained in the cellar until last month when her daughter who had reportedly suffered from epileptic attacks since birth, started once again to get severe cramps.

He agreed reluctantly to take Kerstin to hospital but only after chillingly making Elisabeth write a note to doctors.

It read: "Wednesday, I gave her aspirin and cough medicine for the condition. Thursday, the cough worsened. Friday, the coughing gets even worse. She has been biting her lip as well as her tongue. Please, please help her! Kerstin is really terrified of other people, she was never in a hospital. If there are any problems please ask my father for help, he is the only person that she knows."

Elisabeth had to carry Kerstin, who weighed 50 kilos, upstairs to the car. It was the first time she had seen sunlight that reportedly temporarily blinded her.

As her eyesight slowly adjusted she noticed the way the house had changed, a swimming pool - and what seemed to be a conservatory and another garage had been added.

But just two minutes later she was back in the cellar and the door closed.

Kerstin's two brothers were reportedly both distressed at the sudden disappearance of their sister and had both asked where she was and what was happening to her "outside the door".

Records show the Fritzl then rang the emergency services saying: "This is an emergency, I have just found my niece unconscious."

On the 26 of April, Elisabeth was listening to the local television on the small TV she had in the cellar and saw a report from a doctor that she was being sought because the condition of her daughter had worsened.

For the first time in years she stood up to her father and demanded to be taken to the hospital - where she was found by police.

When Elisabeth spoke to police after she was rescued at the hospital on the 26 April, the information she gave was so shocking officers said they just sat and listened.

They described how she spoke fast, with long pauses as she seemed to struggle to gather her thoughts and look for the right words.

The interview lasted two hours, and produced notes that covered eight sides of A4 paper.

Elisabeth who is in a secure ward with her mother Rosemarie, 69, and five of her six children told investigators her father had acted alone in providing food and clothing for them.

Kerstin is still in an intensive care ward.