TRIGGER WARNING: The following story may be distressing to some readers as it tackles topics such as sexual assault, incest, and rape.
Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who was convicted of holding his own daughter captive for 24 years and incestuously fathered seven children with her, was allowed by a regional court to be transferred from a psychological detention center to a regular prison.
According to German public broadcaster DW, the ruling - which was based on a psychiatric appraisal finding the now 88-year-old sex offender no longer met the requirements for preventative custody - was made by a panel consisting of three lawyers at the regional court in the northern Austrian town of Krems.
"The expert opinion states that he is no longer dangerous for health reasons alone," court representative Ferdinand Schuster said ahead of the ruling.
In 2022, the Higher Regional Court in Vienna upheld an appeal by the public prosecutor against a previous decision to transfer Fritzl to regular custody, saying at the time that there were no "convincing indications" that Fritzl was no longer a danger.
The Monster of Amstetten
Fritzl, an electrician by trade in the town of Amstetten, began his notoriety in 1984 when he imprisoned his then 18-year-old daughter Elisabeth in the soundproof basement of his family home.
He then proceeded to rape and impregnate his daughter, which produced seven children. One of them died in infancy due to Fritzl failing to seek medical help despite knowing the baby was in danger of dying.
Elisabeth Fritzl had the chance to escape in 2008 when one of her daughters was discovered to be in a serious condition with life-threatening kidney failure. While she was forced to return to the basement for one last week, police and local media suspected discrepancies with the older Fritzl's explanations about the girl's condition and Elisabeth's apparent disappearance, which led to his arrest.
The Monster of Amstetten - as Fritzl was soon called - was found guilty in 2009 of incest, rape, coercion, false imprisonment, enslavement, and the negligent homicide of one of his infant sons.
