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 05 September 2008 05:30 BST

Austrian 'cellar captor' stops talking to police

Wednesday, 30 Apr 2008 19:58
Josef Fritzl refuses to speak to detectives after issuing confession
An Austrian man who subjected his daughter to 24 years of sexual abuse in a cellar has stopped talking to police.

Detectives told a news conference in Amstetten that Josef Fritzl was refusing to answer their questions.

Earlier this week the 73-year-old confessed to imprisoning his daughter Elisabeth, now 42, in a chamber underneath their house and fathering seven children with her; a claim supported by DNA evidence.

In a case that has shocked Austrians to their core, Mr Fritzl has also admitted to throwing one of Elisabeth's children onto a furnace when it died several days after being born.

But the former electrical engineer, who slowly expanded the underground chamber to accommodate the children, has now stopped talking to detectives.

He has already appeared in court to be detained for a further 14 days.

More than 120 officers are now involved in the forensic examination of Mr Fritzl's house in Amstetten, Lower Austria, police chief Frank Polzer told journalists today.

Three of the seven children born to Mr Fritzl and his daughter were allowed to leave the dungeon and were either adopted or fostered to other families, but three remained with Elisabeth and saw daylight for the first time this week.

Elisabeth's captivity was only ended when her daughter Kerstin fell severely ill and Mr Fritzl responded to a hospital call for her mother to come forward.

Kerstin, 19, remains in intensive care, doctors told a press conference today.

Detectives also reiterated their belief that Mr Fritzl had operated alone over the last quarter of a century and said his wife Rosemarie appeared unaware her daughter and three grandchildren were living underneath her.

But Mr Polzer, who hinted that a confidential tip-off had allowed police to free Elisabeth and her children, moved to dispel rumours linking Mr Fritzl to an unsolved murder of a young woman 22 years ago.

Martina Posch, whose body was found on the shores of lake Mondsee in 1986, was sexually assaulted before being murdered.

Appearing alongside Mr Polzer in front of the world's media, welfare officials said Elisabeth and her children were in surprisingly good condition and had been reunited in a nearby clinic.

Earlier, Austrian chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer condemned the "abominable events" unfolding in Amstetten.

But he said that the whole country should not "be held hostage by one man".

"It's not Austria that is the perpetrator," he added.End of story


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