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Dani
 Posted:
Sat May 17, 2008 4:04 pm |
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| Fashionista wrote: | There you have it... the "clarification" you have been "requesting" for days from one of the Staff members that did the reprimanding last weekend
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and i sincerely thank YIF and you! (all mods and all of admin, too!) let's enjoy the day!
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Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Posts: 810
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Sun May 18, 2008 8:15 am |
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Fritzl: Wrong to reunite families, say experts
By Andreas Sam, Vienna
mirror.co.uk
Last Updated: 12:53PM BST 18/05/2008
Authorities of the hospital where the family of Josef Fritzl are being treated have been criticised for reuniting the two sets of siblings – the one that led a normal life upstairs and the other forced to dwell in an underground dungeon.
Despite claims from doctors that the family are interacting well and recovering faster than expected, experts have voiced fears that the decision to place all family members together could negatively affect their therapy.
"I have the impression that the doctors and therapists are reviving a family system that has proven to be damaging for Elisabeth Fritzl in the past," said Helene Klaar, a Vienna lawyer specialising in family law.
"It is difficult to understand why must Elisabeth Fritzl now live with her mother, the same woman who never helped her as she was abused by her father,” she added.
Fritzl, 73, had kept his daughter Elisabeth imprisoned in a purpose-built bunker beneath his house for 24 years, fathering seven children with her through decades of sexual abuse.
He selected three of the children to live upstairs with him and his wife Rosemarie, 68, while the other three remained incarcerated with their mother in the cellar dungeon.
One of the children, a baby boy called Michael, died shortly after birth and Fritzl burned his body in an incinerator.
The “upstairs family” – grandmother Rosemarie, and the children Lisa, 15, Monika, 14, and Alexander, 12 - has now been placed together with the “dungeon family” – Stefan, 18, Felix, five, and their mother Elisabeth - in a local psychiatric clinic.
The oldest child, Kerstin, 19, is being treated for a mysterious illness at a different hospital, where doctors keep her in artificially induced coma. The four children who lived in the cellar had never seen daylight prior to their release on April 26.
But the reunion has sparked criticism among experts.
Eva Mueckstein, the president of the Austrian Association of Psychotherapists, said: “Placing the family together can only be the very fist step, until the beginning of the process of dealing with the conflicts within the family.”
The children upstairs led a normal life, excelling at school and playing musical instruments. They are currently receiving private tuition at the hospital.
Their siblings who lived in the dungeon are said to be only starting to adapt to the outside world.
Dr Berthold Kepplinger, the head of the Amstetten-Mauer psychiatric hospital where the Fritzl family are being treated, said that due to the varied state they were in, each family member was receiving a different treatment.
He said: “The team of therapists is trying to adapt to the special needs of individual family members. But I would like to emphasise once more that the family will need a lot of time.”
Dr Kepplingerl also complained that the family was unable to walk freely because of the many journalists and have been “imprisoned for the second time” following their trauma in the cellar.
Since the case was revealed on April 27, the clinic has been besieged by journalists and TV crews who hope to get a glimpse of the Fritzl family.
Special police, fire-fighters, as well as a private security company are in charge of securing the hospital.
“The paparazzi dig holes in the ground, cover them with aluminium foil and then hide in them with their cameras, covered in army camouflage tents. But we were able to apprehend all of them so far," said hospital security chief Richard Riegler.
One paparazzo reportedly managed to climb to the third floor balcony next to the room where the family are being kept in the night between Thursday and Friday, but a screaming nurse alerted security officers who eventually apprehended the man after a short struggle. One of the security officers reportedly fell from the balcony and was severely injured.
According to the local newspaper Österreich, doctors are hiding the incest children in groups of other children in order for them to be able to come out in the open.
The newspaper also claimed that their mother Elisabeth is being disguised as a nurse so that she can have a walk.
The youngest child, Felix, is recovering better than the rest, has learnt how to drive a scooter and has also been taken to McDonalds by carers, Österreich claims.
. . . .
http://tinyurl.com/6aeadj
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Posts: 1600
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Sun May 18, 2008 9:13 am |
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Kerstin Fritzl winning fight for life
By Nick Owens 18/05/2008
SundayMirror.uk
Freed cellar girl Kerstin Fritzl has amazed doctors in Austria with a miraculous recovery.
Kerstin, 19, who spent her whole life in the dungeon built by evil Josef Fritzl, is improving every day.
She has been in a coma ever since she was freed from the cellar where Fritzl kept her captive along with her mum Elisabeth, 42, and brothers Stefan, 18, and six-year-old Felix.
Kerstin's horrific ordeal inside the cellar meant she was starved of oxygen.
Doctors thought she had little chance of pulling through. But yesterday they revealed the first signs have emerged that the teenager - who is on a life-support machine - will survive.
Her kidneys are now working, but she is still getting help to breathe. Dr Albert Reiter says they will get her as fit as they can before waking her.
He said: "She is slowly improving but we have decided she must remain in an artificial coma until more is known about her condition."
The other cellar children are gradually being introduced to the outside world. Yesterday it emerged that Felix has made his first trip to a McDonald's.
Meanwhile police are using DNA testing to see if Fritzl was involved in three unsolved murders.
He has been visited in jail by a member of his family - after he complained of being lonely. [emphasis added]
http://tinyurl.com/5rqj7k
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Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 1600
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| Guest
Posted:
Sun May 18, 2008 1:21 pm |
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http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WORLD NEWS
Austria to see if Fritzl linked to murder case
AMSTETTEN, Austria — Police are looking into possible links between
a young woman's killing and the man who confessed to holding his
daughter captive for 24 years and fathering her seven children, a senior
law enforcement official said Wednesday.
Alois Lissl, the chief of police of Upper Austria province, told The
Associated Press that although no evidence had surfaced so far, police
have widened their investigation into the unsolved murder 22 years ago
to include the incest suspect.
The bound body of 17-year-old Martina Posch was found on a shore of the
Upper Austrian lake of Mondsee in 1986. Josef Fritzl's wife owned part of
an inn and camping ground on the other side of the lake at that time.
Fritzl would be asked for an alibi because the property owned by his wife
could mean he was in the area when Posch was killed, Lissl said.
"We are looking at the case from a third angle," he said of the new
direction the investigation has taken.
Fritzl, 73, confessed Monday to imprisoning his daughter Elisabeth for 24
years in a warren of soundproofed cellar rooms, sexually abusing her,
fathering seven children with her and discarding the body of an one, who
died in infancy, in a furnace.
On Tuesday, tests confirmed that the retired electrician is the biological
father of his daughter's six surviving children.
Three of the children were locked in the underground labyrinth with their
mother for years.
The case started unfolding on April 19 when one of the children held
captive was found unconscious and was taken to a hospital. After
receiving a tip, police picked up Elisabeth and her father on Saturday.
Fritzl freed the captive children the same day.
Authorities say Fritzl led his wife to believe that Elisabeth had run away to
join a religious cult when she disappeared.
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Sun May 18, 2008 2:24 pm |
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So far this is not confirmed anywhere else, so take it for what it's worth:
Sex dungeon victim Elisabeth Fritzl to give dramatic TV interview about her 24-year ordeal
By ALLAN HALL -
The Mail
17:48pm on 18th May 2008
Elisabeth Fritzl will be interviewed by the same reporter who spoke to Natascha Kampusch
Incest victim Elisabeth Fritzl is due to be interviewed about her cellar ordeal by an Austrian TV station.
Elisabeth, 42, has reportedly chosen the same channel - and the same interviewer - who coaxed previous dungeon captive Natascha Kampusch to tell her side of the story.
Natascha, now 20, broke free from an eight-and-a-half year captivity in August 2006 and told the world of her ordeal on ORF TV in her homeland.
Media reports in Austria say that Elisabeth is now poised to do the same after marathon negotiations between the TV station and her lawyer.
Elisabeth stands to make millions of pounds in syndicated rights for the interview around the world.
Upwards of 300 TV stations globally will pay handsomely to beam it live or in repeat showings.
Media in Austria said none of the children - either the three she gave birth to who lived upstairs from her underground tomb nor the two of three healthy ones forced to endure her captivity below - will be in the studio with her.
Christoph Feurstein, the journalist who interviewed Natascha for her first - and subsequent - TV appearances, has been lined up for what promises to be a gripping television spectacle.
It is expected to be broadcast next Monday evening (May 26).
She is expected to talk about the first time she was raped by her father, Josef, 73; how she coped with multiple births in the squalid, damp cellar; what she felt after one of her stillborn child was burned in a stove by her father after it died; how she thought she would never see sunlight again; and her hopes for a more normal future with the children who adore her.
"Elisabeth's hatred of her father is a bottomless pit," said one ORF source.
"It might not be good for the psychological healing process but Elisabeth's heart pumps nothing but pure venom for him."
It is unclear whether she will have to wear tinted glasses for the interview. Her eyes are still very weak from years of never seeing sunshine and high-powered studio lights could, fear doctors, be too much for her.
The interview has been organised in part to reduce the pressure in the family from international photographic media camped at the door to the hospital.
There is increasing tension between authorities and paparazzi who know that a picture of Elisabeth or her children would be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
In a weekend fracas a security guard at the hospital was injured after he fell from a balcony while tackling a photographer.
Hospital officials confirmed that 17 lensmen have been caught in recent weeks trying to get into the Amstetten Mauer hospital.
They included one dressed as a policeman, another that disguised himself as a cleaner and a third who dug a hole in the grounds, filled it with provisions and then covered himself with a bird watcher's hide in the hope of the life-changing picture.
He was caught by a sniffer dog while several others hiding in trees have been rumbled with thermal imaging cameras provided by local mountain rescue guides usually used to spot trapped climbers or stranded skiiers.
Austrian media also reported yesterday that a hospital worker had taken secret pictures of the family and was offering them for sale at 300,000 euros - £260,000.
Officials have sent a letter to staff warning them that there will be legal consequences and a claim for damages that would "far exceed any profit made from the sale of such photos."
The Fritzl family staying at the clinic include Elisabeth and her two children from the cellar Stefan, 18, and Felix six, and her three children that lived in freedom - Alexander 12, Monika 14 and Lisa 15.
Elisabeth's mother Rosemarie is also in the hospital.
Daughter Kerstin, 19, the third cellar captive, is still in a coma. Meanwhile Josef Fritzl is to undergo new DNA testing to see if he is the killer of three women whose murders have gone unsolved in his homeland.
Elisabeth Fritzl and her children are being cared for at this private Austrian hospital
Police chief Franz Polzer says he is being considered as a suspect in the 1986 murder of 17-year-old Martina Posch, and two other murders in 1966 and 2007.
Also on Sunday another major newspaper, the Kurier, asked the question in a headline: "Is Austria the heart of darkness?"
It said that 64 percent of Austrians believe the image of the country has been damaged as a result of the Amstetten case.
http://tinyurl.com/6875kq
ETA, 5/19/2008: This story is now being carried around the world on a lot of sites--along with another story that says that this is not going to happen--so take your pick.
Last edited by PerryPeabody on Mon May 19, 2008 12:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Posts: 1600
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Mon May 19, 2008 7:17 am |
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This is being carried all over the world:
Dungeon hell boy Felix Fritzl enjoys secret trip to McDonald's
May 19 2008 By Ryan Parry
dailyrecord.co.uk
FREED cellar boy Felix Fritzl has enjoyed a secret trip to McDonald's as he begins his road to recovery.
The six-year-old ventured outside his psychiatric clinic for the first time last week to visit the fast-food chain.
A "delighted" Felix travelled three miles with nurses to McDonald's, where he tucked into a Happy Meal.
The boy, who saw no daylight in his cellar prison, wore sunglasses on the outing to protect his eyes.
A source said: "Felix is loving his freedom.
"He loved going to McDonald's. He is also fascinated by cars and loves going out in them."
Felix's mother Elisabeth was held captive in the cellar of her family home in Austria by her father Josef for 24 years.
He abused Elisabeth and fathered seven children by her, one of whom died at birth.
Felix, his brother Stefan and sister Kerstin were held in the cellar with their mum until they were found last month.
Stefan, 18, is in the Landesklinikum clinic in Mauer with Elisabeth and Felix. He has not left the building yet.
Kerstin is recovering from a serious illness in a nearby hospital.
Well-wishers have sent Felix piles of gifts.
The source said: "Felix loves his new scooter the most and is endlessly spending time whizzing around the grounds."
Josef Fritzl, 73, has been charged with rape, incest and abduction.
http://tinyurl.com/68gtgt
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Posts: 1600
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Mon May 19, 2008 8:24 pm |
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Paparazzo hurts guard
telegraph.co.uk
By Andreas Sam in Vienna
8:38PM BST 19/05/2008
Security officers guarding the clinic where the family of Josef Fritzl are being treated will only patrol in teams of two and a police dog after a guard was severely injured by a paparazzo photographer and had to be treated in hospital.
The photographer, who was trying to get into the building where the family are being cared for, allegedly beat up the security officer, 30, with a heavy club and managed to escape without being identified.
The injured guard, who was not named, works for a private security firm that was hired to protect the clinic. He was taken to a hospital where he is being treated for head, neck and shoulder injuries.
The assault was the latest in a series of violent incidents involving reporters and photographers clashing with hospital personnel and guards in a bid to penetrate the security around the hospital and get a picture of the Fritzl family.
http://tinyurl.com/6pbut3
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| gwen
Posted:
Mon May 19, 2008 9:19 pm |
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Geez...how sick!
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AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 22409
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Tue May 20, 2008 9:15 am |
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'Sorry' Josef Fritzl weeps every night in jail
By Ryan Parry, in Amstetten, Austria 20/05/2008
mirror.co.uk
Cellar beast Josef Fritzl is now a broken man who cries himself to sleep at night, prison sources claimed yesterday.
When the world first learned of his twisted crimes, it was further shocked by his cold, unrepentant attitude.
But now, in an outpouring of remorse, all he talks about is seeing his family so he can apologise - and make sure they are all well.
Fritzl, 73, is said to be in a deep depression. He refuses to leave his cell for his hour a day of fresh air and exercise and is wasting away.
A source at St Poelten jail in Austria said: "Fritzl's mood has changed dramatically in the past three weeks.
"When he first arrived he was arrogant and unrepentant. But he's now a broken man. He cries all through the night and has lost a lot of weight - he's wasting away.
"Despite everything that's happened, Fritzl wants to see Elisabeth and the children and his wife Rosemarie.
"He told his legal team, 'I want to see my family to explain things and find out how they are, I am worried about them'. It's ironic a man who kept his family trapped in a cellar so long is now suddenly concerned for them."
They added that Fritzl has had just one visitor in jail, an unknown family friend. Elisabeth - imprisoned by her father for 24 years while he repeatedly raped her, fathering seven children - has already said she never wants to see his face again.
It also emerged yesterday police want to interview her to firm up murder charges against Fritzl, but she's still too ill. Officers believe her father could be responsible for the death of Elisabeth's newborn son Michael.
In an eight-page initial statement, Elisabeth said she had given birth to twins Michael and Alexander alone and by the time Fritzl visited three days later, Michael was dead. Fritzl burned the body in an incinerator and Alexander was raised above ground.
Police still do not have enough information to decide if the fact he deprived Elisabeth and her baby of medical attention constitutes murder.
Meanwhile, claims that Elisabeth is due to give an exclusive TV interview in Austria were rubbished by the family's lawyer.
Dr Christoph Herbst said: "It would seem strange to be interviewed by the media when even the police have not been able to speak to her yet.
"At this stage, there are no such plans whatsoever. A TV appearance by Elisabeth Fritzl is not planned at all."
http://tinyurl.com/6c84py
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Posts: 1600
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Tue May 20, 2008 2:06 pm |
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Fritzl children 'taught in cellar'
ukpress.google.com
1 hour ago
Elisabeth Fritzl taught her children maths and grammar while she was incarcerated in her father's dungeon, her lawyer has said.
Christoph Herbst told a Channel 4 documentary that Elisabeth has not decided whether to seek compensation from her father for his years of abuse. The family are also undecided about changing their identity.
In his first British TV interview, the lawyer told how Elisabeth's five-year-old son, Felix, recently saw a thunderstorm for the first time.
He said the family live a "more or less regular life" in the Austrian hospital they have lived in since the authorities discovered that Josef Fritzl had locked up his secret family in the cellar.
He said: "They rise at about six or seven in the morning. Then they have breakfast together. They get the breakfast from the hospital... then they sit together at a large table and talk, discuss and make jokes.
"Then everybody does their own thing. They play on the computer, they read books, do some drawings, whatever they want ... It's very amazing to watch the family because they behave like a normal family."
He said of the children: "Elisabeth tried to educate the children in the dungeon. They had lessons, they learned grammar, they learned the language, mathematics.
"So they have been raised very well, they are very well behaved....I think Elisabeth tried to give them a structure and a good life under the circumstances in the dungeon."
He told The Secrets of the Austrian Cellar that Elisabeth gets on "very well" with the three children who were taken away from her to live upstairs with their father.
But it was "difficult" for the children whose normal lives have been disrupted by the media attention.
http://tinyurl.com/53vm8j
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| tulsad
Posted:
Tue May 20, 2008 6:44 pm |
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deleted - duplicate of article already posted
Last edited by tulsad on Wed May 21, 2008 8:24 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 10338
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| tulsad
Posted:
Tue May 20, 2008 7:26 pm |
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Josef Fritzl smuggled daughter from dungeon while wife on ho
16/05/2008
Josef Fritzl risked the life of his sick daughter by waiting until his wife Rosemarie had gone on holiday before releasing her from the family dungeon to go to hospital.
In order to keep his double life hidden from his wife, the 73-year-old delayed seeking treatment for his 19-year-old daughter Kerstin, one of seven children he produced through his daughter Elisabeth, 42, who he kept as a sex-slave in his cellar.
His deception was revealed with the discovery of a post card written by Mrs Fritzl while she was on holiday at Lake Maggiore, Italy, and sent to the family home in Amstetten, Austria.
The card was postmarked April 21, two days after Kerstin arrived critically ill at hospital with her father.
It read: “Dear family, my holiday has been lovely. Although I’m really busy every day, I fall into bed dead tired, but I’ll soon be home, Love Mama.”
Had Fritzl acted earlier, Kerstin might not have suffered from the multiple organ failure that forced doctors to place her in an artificial coma in a desperate attempt to save her life.
It is thought that Fritzl was trying to get his daughter treated and then back into the cellar before his wife came home.
“Rosemarie was away when Kerstin was taken outside and to hospital,” said Christoph Herbst, the family lawyer.
“Every year she takes a week away in Italy. She returned as soon as she heard about Kerstin.”
Doctors at the hospital raised the alarm and the police raided the family home and released Elisabeth’s other imprisoned children Felix, 5, and Stephen, 18.
http://tinyurl.com/549guo
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Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 10338
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| tulsad
Posted:
Wed May 21, 2008 8:22 pm |
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Josef Fritzl: incest victim Elisabeth to sue her father for
By Andreas Sam in Vienna
Last Updated: 7:13PM BST 21/05/2008
Lawyers for the Austrian incest victim Elisabeth Fritzl announced that they will take legal action against her father, as doctors reported that members of her family are beginning to plan their future after their ordeal.
Miss Fritzl, 42, was kept as a sex slave in an underground dungeon by her father Josef Fritzl, 73, for 24 years and was forced to give birth to seven children.
Her lawyer Christoph Herbs said his client was planning to sue her father for damages and that the decision on what legal action would be taken was to be made in the next weeks.
Mr Herbs is also representing Miss Fritzl's the six surviving children and is exploring whether they could also be legally entitled to damages from their father, who kept three of them in the dungeon for the whole of their lives.
Mr Herbs said that he was briefing Miss Fritzl about all the legal possibilities for the multiple lawsuits and that she would then make a final decision together with her children.
Meanwhile, the doctors caring for the family have announced that their condition is improving and that they have already initiated talks about plans for a life outside the psychiatric hospital where they are recovering. Miss Fritzl, her children Stefan, 18, Lisa, 15, Monika, 14, Alexander, 12 and Felix, five, as well as their grandmother, Rosemarie Fritzl, 68, have now all taken part in family therapy sessions.
Dr Berthold Kepplinger, the head of the Amstetten-Mauer psychiatric hospital where the Fritzl family is being treated, said: "We have started … counselling with the children. Apart form the psychiatric support of both the adults and the children, we have also started the first sessions of family therapy.
"The sessions are primarily dealing with the issues of planning their future life."
According to Dr Kepplinger, the children are receiving now private tuition in the hospital, and are spending their spare time playing computer games, reading books and playing table football.
The condition of Kerstin, 19, who is being treated for an unknown illness and has been put into artificial coma at a different hospital, is also improving.
Dr Albert Reiter, who is in charge of Kerstin's treatment, said: "Kerstin's condition has improved in the last days. We have already thought to slowly start waking her up from her coma. At present it is not possible to tell how long would this process take."
Following an incident that left a hospital security officer inured after a press photographer attempted to break into the hospital, Dr Kepplinger has also appealed to all journalists to stop attempting to enter the hospital where the Fritzls are being treated.
He said: "This madness must stop now. The family needs time and peace. The protection of their privacy is of an enormous importance for the success of the therapy."
http://tinyurl.com/5geqp2
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Sparkly Tree
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| tulsad
Posted:
Wed May 21, 2008 8:34 pm |
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Austria to toughen sex laws after Josef Fritzl
08/05/2008
Alfred Gusenbauer, Austrian Chancellor, has unveiled measures to toughen the country’s laws on sex crime in the wake of the Fritzl case.
Mr Gusenbauer announced that the criminal records of convicted sex offenders would be held on file for much longer, as well as being banned from carrying out certain professions and adopting children.
His proposals, which could come into force next year, were agreed by the Austrian cabinet yesterday (Wed) in a special session of parliament.
Mr Gusenbauer said it was “inconceivable” that, having served an 18-month jail term for rape, Fritzl, 73, had been allowed to adopt one and foster two of his children by his daughter.
Under current Austrian law, criminal records are cleared after a prescribed amount of time. A conviction can be cleared after five years but must be cleared after 15 years, unless it carries a life sentence.
Fritzl reported his daughter missing 24 years ago and claimed she had run away to join a cult, when she had, in reality, been locked in the underground dungeon she helped build.
Police carried out routine background checks on him but, due to existing laws, his record was technically clean.
Last week, the regional daily newspaper Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten reported that a court file and a police file on a rape committed by Fritzl in October 1967 had turned up in official archives in Linz.
http://tinyurl.com/598w3v
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Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
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| tulsad
Posted:
Thu May 22, 2008 2:16 am |
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Doctors begin to tutor Fritzl children in clinic
22 May 2008
THE director of a psychiatric clinic treating the family of Josef Fritzl said teachers have started to tutor the children he fathered with his daughter.
Berthold Kepplinger said the tutoring began several days ago. He stressed that the family needs privacy to recuperate and urged paparazzi to stop trying to take photos of them. “This madness has to end,” he said.
Earlier this week, a security guard was injured in a tussle with a photographer.
Mr Kepplinger added that the children play computer games, read books and are playing table football.
Police say Fritzl confessed to imprisoning his daughter in a dungeon for 24 years and fathering seven children with her.
Fritzl told them that three of the children were kept in the cellar, three others were raised by Fritzl and his wife and one died in infancy.
DNA tests confirm Fritzl is the biological father of the six surviving children.
None of the victims — Elisabeth, her six children and Fritzl’s wife Rosemarie — has been seen in public since the ordeal ended in late April.
Separately, a doctor treating the oldest of Elisabeth’s children, 19-year-old Kerstin, said that the young woman was doing better.
As a result, the medication keeping her in an induced coma, is being slowly reduced, Dr Reiter said. He added that doctors were examining whether to start waking her up.
http://tinyurl.com/4k7ufc
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Sparkly Tree
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| tulsad
Posted:
Thu May 22, 2008 2:35 am |
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The Secrets of the Austrian Cellar Documentary
May 21, 2008
The Secrets of the Austrian Cellar
Wed. May 21, 2008, Channel 4, 9pm
No doubt this will be the first of many documentaries that try to comprehend the incomprehensible. No preview discs were available because details are added to this hideous saga every day and this will be edited up to the wire. But the emphasis of the programme will be on how Joseph Fritzl managed to escape detection for so long. “Fritzl acted with premeditation when he began building the underground cellar of his home in 1978,” said Colonel Franz Polzer of the Austrian police. That was a full six years before he imprisoned his daughter. Eight doors protected the dungeon; all were locked and the last two were electronically controlled. “He planned every detail with astonishing precision. His diabolical plan was almost perfect,” said Colonel Polzer.
http://tinyurl.com/54np4r
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Sparkly Tree
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Fri May 23, 2008 9:29 am |
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From a tabloid and, so far, only repeated in tabloids:
Josef Fritzl released captive children 'to claim benefits'
By Our Foreign Staff
mirror.co.uk
Last Updated: 2:14PM BST 23/05/2008
Police are investigating whether Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned his daughter for 24 years, freed three of the seven children he bore her in order to claim state benefits, it has been reported.
Fritzl, 73, received about 12,000 euros (£9,550) per year for each of the children in his care.
Police at first suspected that he released three children - Alexander, Monika and Lisa - because the dungeon was getting too small for the rapidly growing family.
But police reportedly examined his financial records and found they showed Fritzl needed the money to pay debts.
Fritzl organised for Elisabeth, his daughter, to write notes on the pretence that she could not care for the children and wanted them entrusted to the care of Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie.
He had earlier convinced his wife and authorities that Elisabeth had run away and joined a religious cult.
The children were then left, each on different occasions, outside Fritzl's home in Amstetten, Austria, where they were "discovered" by the electrical engineer.
He adopted one of the children and became the legal foster parent for the other two, allowing him and his wife to claim money from the state to pay for their care.
Meanwhile, Elisabeth and her three other children, Kerstin, Felix and Stefan - another died soon after birth - were kept prisoner underground.
The two sets of siblings - who were unaware of each other's existence until last month - are now getting to know each other under the eye of doctors and psychologists in an Austrian clinic. Kerstin, 19, Elisabeth's eldest daughter, is still in an induced coma in intensive care in hospital, where she was admitted after Fritzl released her from captivity because she was sick.
Doctors were baffled by her litany of medical problems and called for information from her mother, leading to the discovery of the dungeon where Elisabeth, Felix and Stefan were being held.
Kerstin's recovery has been slow, but doctors this week discussed the possibility of bringing her out of the induced coma.
http://tinyurl.com/44lwxr
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Fri May 23, 2008 2:31 pm |
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Josef Fritzl family could get new identities
By Andreas Sam in Amstetten
telegraph co.uk
Last Updated: 7:23PM BST 23/05/2008
Members of Joseph Fritzl's family are looking into the possibility of assuming new identities so they may lead as normal a life as possible when they are released from hospital.
Josef Fritzl's cellar family want to make sure he will never be able to trace them, even from jail
As well as escaping the public fascination with their horrific story, the family wants to ensure that Fritzl, who held his daughter Elisabeth captive for 24 years and fathered seven children by her, will be unable to trace them, even from his prison cell.
The push to give the family new identities comes after a series of violent incidents involving journalists breaching security at the hospital where they are being treated.
After a sharp intensification of the security measures at the psychiatric unit following attempts by the international paparazzi to get into the closed ward where the family are kept, lawyers for the Fritzl family and hospital authorities have said that they have effectively been 'imprisoned again'.
Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, five of her six children and her mother Rosemarie, 68, have been receiving treatment at the Amstetten-Mauer hospital since April 27. But the family's recovery has been jeopardised by increasingly desperate attempts by reporters and photographers to catch a glimpse of the tormented family.
The family's lawyer Christoph Herbst said that he had been 'bombarded' with financial offers from various international media for photographs and interviews with his clients, but rejected the possibility of any kind of public appearance within the next few months.
Mr Herbst also said that the family were now considering assuming new identities in order to avoid the aggressive scrutiny of the international press. He said: "Miss Fritzl and her two children, Stefan and Felix, who had never before seen daylight are recovering remarkably well, but they are virtually imprisoned for the second time after their life long ordeal as they are not allowed to leave the hospital building due to many aggressive reporters and photographers.
"The children would like to go out in the open; they have never experienced rain in their lives nor have they felt fresh air. They're incredibly curious about everything around them and they would like to touch the trees and the plants in the hospital gardens. But they are unable to even leave the floor they are residing in, and that is an untenable situation.
"We are therefore looking into the possibility of asking the authorities to provide them with new identities, in order for them to be able to avoid pressure from the international media. We will definitely not be giving any interviews."
Miss Fritzl was held as her father's personal sex slave in a dungeon beneath his home in the town an Amstetten for more than 24 years and had seven children with him, one of which died soon after birth.
Fritzl, 73, once a respected electrical engineer and property developer, brought three of the children - Lisa, 15, Monika 14 and Alexander, 12 - to live in his upstairs apartment with him and his wife Rosemarie.
The remaining three children - Kerstin, 19, Stefan, 18, and Felix, five - remained with their mother in the cellar bunker until April 26.
The case came to light when Kerstin fell severely ill and was taken to hospital on April 19. She is currently being kept in an artificial coma but doctors said that her condition was improving and that they would soon initiate the process of waking her up.
http://tinyurl.com/4m23cd
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Sat May 24, 2008 10:40 am |
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Josef Fritzl could be sued by family
By Bojan Pancevski in Vienna
mirror.co.uk
Last Updated: 3:14PM BST 24/05/2008
The Austrian incest offender Josef Fritzl could be sued for damages by his family as early as next week after authorities determine the state of his assets.
Lawyers for the Fritzls are currently working with authorities to estimate the value of Fritzl’s property and are trying to determine if he has money put aside on his various accounts.
The probe into his financial affairs should be completed by next week and the family could than take legal action.
Christoph Herbst, the lawyer for the family, claimed that a damages lawsuit against Fritzl now appeared "necessary", as the support they would be receiving from the state would not be enough to secure their future.
Mr Herbst said: "It is quite difficult to understand Mr Fritzl’s financial affairs as he alone was in charge of his business. He owns several properties in and around Amstetten but there are mortgages on some of them amounting to several millions. We are now trying to determine whether the sale of these properties would leave some profit after covering the debts."
Mr Herbs however added that the research into Fritzl’s assets was complex as he conducted his businesses discretely and without any outside involvement and he also could not be questioned to that extent at the moment.
"If he was able to keep such a dark secret from the world, he could also have been able to keep his financial dealings confidential," Mr Herbs said.
Fritzl, 73, an engineer and property developer, has confessed to imprisoning his daughter Elisabeth, 42, in a purpose-built dungeon beneath his house in the town of Amstetten for 24 years, fathering seven children as a result of repeated sexual abuse.
One of the children, a baby boy called Michael, died shortly after birth and Fritzl burned his body in an incinerator.
He is now in remand prison awaiting trial, where he could be facing a string of charges including manslaughter, rape, incest and kidnapping.
The case came to light when the oldest child, Kerstin, 19, fell severely ill and had to be taken to a hospital. Her condition is now said to be improving.
The other children — Stefan, 19, Lisa, 15, Monika, 14, Alexander 12, and Felix, five, are being treated in the Amstetten-Mauer psychiatric clinic, together with their mother Elisabeth and their grandmother, Fritzl’s wife, Rosemarie, 68.
All family members have been receiving individual counselling and they are also undergoing joint therapy in a bid to prepare them for their life outside the hospital.
Kerstin, Stefan and Felix spent their entire lives in the dungeon and had not seen the outside world until April 26, when they were freed by police.
According to their lawyer Mr Herbst, most of the costs for the family’s treatment, which is expected to take at least several months, are likely to be covered by the state, but the costs of their life in the future had to be secured by "additional means," including requesting damages payment from Fritzl.
He said: "Currently we are in the process of getting birth certificates and a citizenship for the three children that were raised in the cellar, in order for them to be able to fully enjoy their legal and other rights. But the support from the state will not be sufficient to secure the future life of the family."
http://tinyurl.com/5ad8kx
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Sun May 25, 2008 9:09 am |
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This is an article written earlier by a Scottish forensic clinical psychologist:
Helping Elisabeth Fritzl
Anne Carpenter*
Published 30 April 2008
Newstatesman
The story of Elisabeth Fritzl, the 42 year old woman who was imprisoned in a cellar and raped by her father over a 24 year old period, is so shocking it is inconceivable to most of the public.
While this is clearly an extreme case of sadistic emotional and sexual abuse the need to treat victims of child abuse is unfortunately commonplace within the mental health field.
And, in the last 30 years, academics and clinicians have developed a greater understanding of the complicated psychology of abuse survivors.
Clearly this woman is likely to require extensive help and support to come to terms with her dreadful ordeal. However, those involved in her recovery will need to be cautious and sensitive particularly as she will have grown used to her emotional and physical needs being over-ridden by her abuser. In fact, she may be unable to articulate or even recognise them.
She will be feeling a range of conflicting and confusing emotions – shock, disorientation, anger, guilt, sadness as well as happiness and relief. It is likely that she will shift rapidly from one emotion to another in the early stages of resolution and as such, above all at this time will need gentle support from those caring for her.
Miss Fritzl will have to be gently encouraged to express her own needs and make her own decisions. Living in a cramped cellar away form normal social contacts will mean she has lost many basic life skills: meeting people, shopping, using a telephone, even crossing the road - all will be strange and daunting tasks.
Intensive psychological therapy is often inadvisable in the immediate aftermath of extreme trauma, particularly at a time of extensive police and media interest. Research on counselling in the immediate period after distress warns against probing into feelings too deeply and too quickly.
Any disclosure of abusive experiences can lead to the individual feeling that they are being abused all over again. People often describe traumatic “flashbacks”, where they feel as if they are being pulled back into the past and are being abused again. They may experience sounds, smells or sensations which can feel distressing; as if they are losing their minds. Such experiences are quite normal and are the mind’s ways of rationalising and understanding the incident. They are, however, very alarming.
Disclosure of such events is particularly difficult where someone is not used to being treated with respect. She may expect to be punished or blamed. Miss Fritzl may even anticipate repeat abuse from those looking after her as it is what she has been accustomed for most of her life. She will look to therapists to tell her what to do, where to go, what to eat, who to speak to. In other words; will have lost all initiative. This is why the preliminary stage of providing gentle support is so crucial in helping her resolve and understand her feelings. At this stage, all involved should be telling her they believe her and know this is not her fault.
Sexual abuse survivors commonly express feelings of extreme guilt: Guilt that they didn’t stop the abuse; guilt that they “let” it go on for so long; guilt that the abuser has been arrested. The public commonly ask “Why didn’t they stop it?” It is vital that such a question is not put so bluntly to Miss Frutzl.
Working with abuse survivors and sex offenders has helped clinicians understand the very complex relationships that exist between them. “Stockholm Syndrome” was identified in the 1970s and recognised that, where a victim is dependent on their abuser for their very survival, a curious, almost infantile, attachment can develop. The victim may hotly defend the perpetrator and even apportion much of the blame to themselves; particularly where they have been told by the abuser that they are to blame. Again, such attachment is normal and Miss Fritzl will need help to express such feelings. This will not be possible if she feels that she will be labelled as “mad” or complicit. No-one freely consents to such horrific abuse.
The final issue which she will face is in taking on her role as a mother to her six children. Children about whom she may have ambivalent feelings. Some were cared for by her parents; some may also have been abused; some were also the victims of the sadistic decision to imprison them in a cellar; all of them are active daily reminders of her unwanted incestuous relationship. The children will, of course, also need extensive support.
Miss Fritzl’s reintroduction to Austrian society will be long and traumatic. It may even be as traumatic as her first few months in captivity. She will need above all to be protected from the eyes of the world as she is helped to reconcile the very complicated and often conflicting emotions that she will experience.
From a world where she will have felt very alone, she will need to learn from her carers and therapists that, while her case may be extreme, child abuse is unfortunately not unique and her feelings will be very similar to those commonly expressed by our many abuse survivors.
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*Anne Carpenter is a Consultant forensic clinical psychologist employed within the Forensic Mental Health directorate of Glasgow and Clyde health board. For over 20 years she has worked with victims of child abuse, female offenders and mentally disordered offenders. She has worked extensively with Victim Support Scotland and is a member of the Parole Board for Scotland.
http://tinyurl.com/6kb676
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Tue May 27, 2008 10:24 am |
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From the Telegraph:
Josef Fritzl: Kerstin to be brought out of coma
By Andreas Sam in Vienna
Last Updated: 2:10PM BST 27/05/2008
telegraph.co.uk
Doctors treating the daughter of the incest offender Josef Fritzl have initiated the wake-up phase to revive her from an artificially induced coma.
Kerstin Fritzl, 19, has been treated in a local hospital for a mysterious illness since April 19.
After she suffered a multiple organ failure following an oxygen deficiency caused by severe cramp attacks, doctors put her into an artificial coma in order to keep her vital functions steady.
But this week, after her condition gradually improved, the staff at the Amstteten Regional Clinic initiated the so called wake-up phase where they started reducing the medication with the intention of bringing her out of the state of coma.
Hospital spokesman Klaus Schwertner said: "Kerstin is still in coma but her condition has been gradually improving and doctors have initiated the wake-up phase.
"It is at this stage impossible to tell how long it would take before she wakes up, as that is always an individual thing with coma patients.
“It is expected that it will take some weeks before she actually wakes up, but it could also take longer than that. But her condition is now steady and doctors are very optimistic about the future development.”
Kerstin is one of the seven children Josef Fritzl, 73, an engineer and property developer, fathered with his own daughter Elisabeth, 42, whom he kept as his personal sex slave in a purpose-built dungeon beneath his home for over 24 years.
One of the children, a baby boy called Michael, died shortly after birth and Fritzl burned his body in an incinerator.
Fritzl selected three of the children, Lisa, 15, Monika, 14, and Alexander, 12, to live with him and his wife Rosemarie, 68, in their upstairs apartment in the town of Amstetten.
The other three children, Kerstin, Stefan, 18, and Felix, five, were forced to live in the damp cellar beneath with their mother, never seeing the light of day until police revealed the case on April 26.
The case came to light after Fritzl was forced to take Kerstin to a hospital and medical staff there alerted the authorities.
http://tinyurl.com/6o5wnu
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Wed May 28, 2008 9:16 am |
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Josef Fritzl's children to go back to school next term
By Tom Peterkin
mirror.co.uk
Last Updated: 9:31AM BST 28/05/2008
The children that Josef Fritzl removed from his dungeon as babies are to return to school next term, it has been revealed.
Lisa,16, Monika,14, and Alexander,12, have been receiving private tuition in the hospital where they have been treated since it emerged that Fritzl,73, fathered seven children with his daughter Elisabeth,42.
Elisabeth was locked in the cellar for 24-years at their home in Amstetten, Austria, along with children Kirsten,19, Felix,5, and Stefan,18.
Lisa, Monika and Alexander were brought upstairs to live a `normal' life with Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie,69. A seventh child died.
Today it was reported that Lisa Monika and Alexander were keen to see their friends again.
Their return to school, however, is to be delayed until after the summer holidays. Sources closed to the family have said that the three month period provides enough time for the relentless media attention on the family to die down.
"The plan is to send them back in September. It's still to be decided if they return to old schools or go elsewhere," said a source.
"Lisa, Monika and Alexander are keen to see their friends again."
Stefan and Felix are learning life skills at the clinic in Amstetten after spending their lives underground. Kerstin has been in a coma since April 19 when her hospitalisation led to the discovery of the dungeon.
Doctors have started the process of waking her from the medically induced coma.
http://tinyurl.com/3fcqam
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Posts: 1600
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Thu May 29, 2008 8:11 am |
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Josef Fritzl's entire family to get new identities
By Andreas Sam and Caroline Gammell
Last Updated: 12:29PM BST 29/05/2008
Every member of Josef Fritzl's family will be given a new identity by the Austrian authorities.
His daughter Elisabeth, who was held captive in a secret cellar for 24 years and bore her father six children, her six adult siblings and mother Rosemarie will all receive new papers.
The new identities are being arranged by Amstetten city council after the family decided not to talk to the media or give interviews about their prolonged ordeal.
Their lawyer Christoph Herbst said: "There have been many offers for interviews but the decision not to go public is final.
"The doctors treating the family are adamant that they need to rest, recover and go on with their therapy rather than be exposed in the public."
Fritzl, 73, kept Elisabeth, now 42, in a purpose-built dungeon in the cellar beneath the family home and repeatedly raped her.
She gave birth to seven of his children, but one son died at only three days old and Fritzl burned his body in an incinerator.
Fritzl allowed three of the children, Lisa, 15, Monika, 14, and Alexander, 12, to live with him and his wife in their home, while the other three - Kerstin, 19, Stefan 18, and Felix, five - were never allowed to leave the cellar prison.
The case was exposed when Kerstin fell severely ill last month and had to be taken to a hospital, where she was put into an artificial coma following a multiple organ failure.
Elisabeth Fritzl, her children, and her mother Rosemarie, 68, have been receiving medical and psychiatric attention at the Amstetten-Mauer psychiatric clinic since April 27, where they are currently undergoing family therapy and are being prepared for their future life outside the hospital.
Kerstin's condition is also said to be improving and doctors have initiated the wake-up phase, but the cause of her illness has not yet been determined.
Following a series of violent incidents involving reporters and photographers trying to get to the family, hospital authorities have complained that the Fritzls have been "imprisoned for the second time" as they are not allowed to leave the clinic due to the presence of the international press.
Elisabeth Fritzl's six adult siblings, aged 37 to 50, have also been pressured by international media and are understood to be considering a change of identity to avoid public scrutiny.
http://tinyurl.com/5fjxvu
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Posts: 1600
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Thu May 29, 2008 8:17 am |
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Josef Fritzl's dungeon door weighed 660lb
mirror.co.uk
29/05/2008
The cellar door used to trap dungeon victim Elisabeth Fritzl was so heavy it took four fireman to open it.
Joseph Fritzl, 73, sprayed concrete on the steel frame so his daughter and the children she bore him could never shift its 660lb mass.
Fritzl lured Elisabeth, 42, into the cellar in Amstetten, Austria, in 1984 by asking her to help carry the door downstairs, before trapping her.
http://tinyurl.com/3vgbsb
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Posts: 1600
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Thu May 29, 2008 8:22 am |
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Amstetten tires of British photographers
byThomas Hochwarter in Vienna
guardian.co.uk
Thursday May 29 2008
Local authorities in the Austrian town of Amstetten, tiring of the antics of British photographers trying to get pictures of the Fritzl family, are threatening to make a formal complaint to the UK's press regulator.
More than 20 photographers have been caught trying to sneak into Amstetten-Mauer psychiatric clinic, where Elisabeth Fritzl and her family are receiving treatment, in a bid to get the first exclusive picture, according to local police and hospital officials.
The story of Elisabeth Fritzl, who was locked in a secret cellar dungeon and repeatedly raped by her father, Josef, over 24 years, having seven children by him during that period, has resulted in hundreds of media organisations sending staff to Amstetten.
Heinz Lenze, a senior Amstetten local authority official, said he had now instructed police to take down the personal details of all photographers caught trying to get into the clinic and where possible to make a complaint to the relevant press regulation bodies.
Lenze said British photographers were being singled out because they were the main perpetrators, although journalists from other countries have also been stopped from trying to gain entry to the clinic.
He added that he was looking into making a formal complaint about the activities of UK photo-journalists to the Press Complaints Commmission.
"We have been in touch with the Press Complaints Commission who have said they can accept complaints about British journalists operating abroad, and that sneaking into hospital dressed as cleaners or policemen would definitely fit in their remit," Lenze said.
"From now on, names will be passed on as soon as we have them," he added.
The director of the Amstetten-Mauer psychiatric clinic has made appeals for the family's right to privacy to be respected - but so far with little success as photographers are still being caught trying to gain access to the hospital.
Until now, police or private security guards have not been taking the names of the photographers escorted from the grounds of the clinic.
They include one who had dug a hole in the ground, stocked it with provisions and covered himself with a bird watcher's hide.
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