Josef Fritzl could soon be freed from jail after claim he is ‘no longer a risk’

Content Warning: this article discusses sexual abuse.

Josef Fritzl could be free from jail and spend the rest of his life in a retirement home after it is claimed he is no longer a risk to the public.

Josef Fritzl, 88, was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 after the horrific crimes he had committed against his daughter, Elisabeth, came to light.

He had locked her away in a soundproof cellar in his Amstetten, Austria home, and raped her for 24 years.

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His sexual assaults against his daughter resulted in seven children, one of which died. Three of these children were forced to stay in the basement with Elisabeth, while the other three were brought up into the family home to live with him.

Despite these unspeakable crimes, he could now be let out of jail following a psyche evaluation.

Local media have reported that Fritzl now appears confused, talks to the TV, thinks he is a pop star and imagines visits from family that never occurred, according to a Metro report.

A new psychiatric report on the convicted rapist also stated that Fritzl can barely walk and requires a walking frame to get around.

Heidi Kastner, a forensic psychiatric expert from Linz University, has spent a year preparing a new study on Fritzl, and concluded he was no longer dangerous.

Kastner said Fritzl can now be transferred through the normal prison system, taking the first steps in him being released.

It's been said that Fritzl would likely live out his final days in the comfort of a nursing home, however, a court will decide where to move him to due to his worsening health.

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Fritzl began his torment of his daughter when she was just 18-years-old, where he lured her down to the basement. His wife, Rosemarie, filed a missing person's report when she realized their daughter was missing, but Fritzl had convinced the police and his wife that Elisabeth had left a note claiming to be staying with friends, and did not want to be found.

Fritzl was arrested in 2008, after he was forced to take one of the children he had fathered to the hospital, with Elisabeth in tow. It was here Elisabeth told police she had been held captive. Elisabeth was 42.

The world was shocked and disgusted by the story, with neighbors describing him as someone who blended in well and kept to himself.

Elisabeth and her children were taken into the care of Austrian social services following Fritzl’s arrest and now live under new aliases.