Josef Fritzl believes there might be ‘celebrations’ if he wins bid for freedom

The depraved rapist fathered seven children by his daughter Elisabeth while holding her captive as a sex slave in a dungeon he built under his home(Picture: Newsflash/Getty)

Josef Fritzl believes people might be ‘celebrating’ and queuing as much as shake his hand if he’s successful in his bid for freedom.

The depraved rapist fathered seven children by his daughter Elisabeth while holding her captive as a sex slave in a dungeon he built under his home in Amstetten, Austria, for twenty-four years.

His crimes horrified the world after they got here to light in 2008. Now 89, he has been serving a life sentence in a jail unit for ‘mentally abnormal’ inmates since his conviction a 12 months later.

Fritzl’s lawyer Astrid Wagner has said she’s going to apply for parole next month and given his old age and frail health, she is optimistic he might be freed.

Talking to the Mirror, she said: ‘He believes that when he’s released, he’ll come out to a giant celebration with people cheering and music and wanting to shake his hand.

‘This is clearly not the case. It’s a fantasy. I don’t think he fully understands what the world really thinks.’

Ms Wagner said Fritzl wants to maneuver back to where he previously lived but added: ‘He would want a carer and none of his friends or family need to know.’

Austrian Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned his daughter in a cellar for over 24 years and fathered seven children with her, is escorted back to a prison after his hearing at the regional court in Krems an der Donau, Austria on January 25, 2024. The reginal court in Krems, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Vienna, approved the application of Fritzl to be transferred out of the jail he is currently in for the mentally ill who pose a high degree of danger, to a regular prison. Fritzl, now 88, was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 for the murder by neglect of a new-born baby he fathered with his daughter Elisabeth while holding her in the purpose-built basement of his house. (Photo by Joe Klamar / AFP) (Photo by JOE KLAMAR/AFP via Getty Images) — Josef Fritzl escortedback to a jail after his hearing on the regional court in Krems an der Donau last January (Picture: AFP via Getty)

[Fritzl repeatedly raped his daughter Elisabeth (pictured), fathering seven incestuous children with her during her captivity][Three of the seven children were brought up by Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie (pictured together), while three lived in the basement. The other died at birth.] — Fritzl imprisoned daughter Elisabeth for greater than 24 years

In January last 12 months, a regional court ruled Fritzl now not posed a threat to society and gave the green light for him to be transferred from a high-security prison to a daily jail.

The transfer was seen as paving the best way for his conditional release from prison altogether – something the three-judge panel said was unlikely for the foreseeable future.

Fritzl imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth within the basement of the family home when she was 18.

Three of the seven children he fathered along with his daughter lived together with her until they were freed in 2008.

Fritzl and his wife fostered the opposite three surviving children after he claimed Elisabeth had given birth to them after which abandoned them to affix a spiritual sect.

He burnt the stays of the seventh child, who died shortly after birth, in the home furnace.

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