Incestuous Austrian Dad Faces Murder, Rape, Incest, Slavery Charges

November 13, 2008 9:06 p.m. EST

Vienna, Austria (AHN) - Austrian prosecutors have charged a father who secretly kept his daughter as her sex slave in their house's cellar for 24 years and fathered her seven children, one of whom died during birth.

Murder, rape, incest, false imprisonment and slavery were the charges filed against Josef Fritzl, 73, of Amstetten, the prosecutors said Thursday. He has admitted to investigators of imprisoning her daughter Elisabeth, 42, since she was 18 and repeatedly raping her.

The incest produced seven children, three of whom Fritzl allowed to live with him and his wife upstairs but locking up three others with Elisabeth in the windowless basement. One child died due to breathing problems after birth and Fritzl burned the body in a furnace.

The crimes were discovered in April when Fritzl brought one of his child to a hospital for treatment together with Elisabeth. The hospital staff got suspicious of their identities and called the police.

Elisabeth, all her children aged 5 to 19 and her mother, who denied complicity in the crimes, are now living together in an undisclosed place and trying to live a normal life.