WTH? Josef Fritzl offered counselling 'to cope with trial'
Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 8:27 am
Josef Fritzl, who raped his daughter Elisabeth more than 3,000 times during the 24 years he imprisoned her in a cellar, has been offered counselling to help cope with the trauma of his ongoing trial.
The eight jurors heard how Fritzl forced his daughter to fulfill his sexual fantasies after making her watch pornographic films.
In her pre-recorded evidence, Elisabeth, now 42, said Fritzl would bring boxes of sexually explicit videos into the cellar and then order her to re-enact certain scenes.
The rape sessions would last for hours and Elisabeth eventually stopped resisting because she knew her life was in danger if she did not co-operate, the court was told.
In the tapes, Elisabeth alleged that Fritzl had ignored her ailing newborn son Michael in 1996 and then disposed of the child’s body in a stove after he had died.
Fritzl is being asked to reply to the allegations made in each segment of the tape.
The self-confessed incest rapist is being held at St Poelten prison, next to the court, and its vice president Erich Huber-Gunstofer said his most famous incumbent was being offered psychiatric support.
"He is being offered psychiatric care to help him through the ordeal of the trial," he said.
"He can watch television because he has access to TV in the communal areas and he can also read the daily newspapers.
"He has told us that he doesn't want to exercise in the yard during the trial but he can do afterwards if he wants to.
"He has two people to protect him at all times. They don't discuss the trial with him but we are offering him therapists and he does share a cell with two other inmates.
"There is no special treatment for Josef F."