Fritzl seeks credit for not killing child

Published: May 7, 2008 at 1:21 PM
Order reprints
VIENNA, May 7 (UPI) -- Josef Fritzl said he was "not a monster" because he kept his daughter imprisoned in the cellar of his Austrian house when he could have easily killed her.

"I am not a monster," Fritzl said in a statement released through his lawyer. "I could have killed all of them and no one would have known. No one would have ever found about it."

Fritzl, 73, remained jailed under high security Wednesday for allegedly keeping his adult daughter locked in a secret basement dungeon and sexually assaulting her for 24 years.

Britain's The Times of London said the statement, which was carried Wednesday by the German tabloid Bild, went on to decry what Fritzl said was one-sided coverage of the sensational story.

Frtizl's attorney said the Amsterdam resident was a "broken man" who belonged in a mental hospital rather than prison.

Reinhard Haller, a leading forensic psychiatrist in Austria, disagreed with claims that Fritzl was insane. He told The Telegraph: "His main motivation was the exercise of power. It is not a sign of mental illness but rather of an extreme personality disorder."


© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.



Home sales rise in Baltimore area (4 min)
Lawsuit filed in cemetery desecration (7 min)
Canadian PM apologizes at G8 for blunder (57 min)
Cruz added to AL All-Star team
Couple in Lisa Nowak case set to marry
UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News
UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News
fark
Barbie-Con visitors split on major issue: Are you allowed to open her box and play with it?
It's been 10 years since "The Blair Witch Project." Where were you when this crappy, one-joke, overhyped...
While serious people debate health care, CNN does interview with morons from West Virgina who ignored...
Swim club president clarifies racial misunderstanding. The issue is safety, not race; "Many of them...
CNN delves into the hard-hitting story others are too timid to confront: What do psychics have to...
Prospect Heights, Illinois Police Department HQ to close to the public on Fridays. Citizens are...