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Life Sentence in Austria Incest Case

BERLIN — An Austrian court sentenced Josef Fritzl to life in prison for allowing one of the children he fathered with his imprisoned daughter to die without medical attention. The guilty verdict and sentence, which he will serve in a secure psychiatric facility, brought to a close a sensational tale of incest in a homemade ****ment dungeon that horrified but riveted the world.
Mr. Fritzl, 73, was found guilty on all counts, including rape, incest, imprisonment and enslavement.

But it was the charge of negligent homicide that carried the highest sentence. Prosecutors demanded the maximum sentence before the eight-member jury retired to deliberate. The verdict was unanimous.

Televised images from the courthouse in St. P?lten, Austria, showed Mr. Fritzl displaying no emotion as he was led out of the courtroom by guards. Mr. Fritzl’s lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, said that his client would not appeal the ruling and that it was “the logical consequence of his guilty plea.”

Two days after refusing to take responsibility for his newborn son’s death, Mr. Fritzl abruptly reversed himself on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to all counts against him, including negligent homicide and enslavement.

The crime began a quarter-century ago when Mr. Fritzl locked his daughter in the ****ment of the apartment house where the family lived. Over the course of the 24 years in which he held her in captivity in the windowless cellar, Mr. Fritzl repeatedly raped his daughter, who gave birth to seven children.

A twin boy who died shortly after he was born became a focal point of the legal proceedings.

Under Austrian law, sentences are served concurrently and not consecutively.

It is unlikely that Mr. Fritzl will ever be freed, but it remains at least a possibility.

“He could theoretically be released after 15 years at the earliest, and then of course three judges would have to decide again about his release,” said Franz Cutka, a court spokesman, speaking through an interpreter at a news conference.

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