Incest father was 'tyrant,' police say

AMSTETTEN, Austria (AP) -- The Austrian man who allegedly imprisoned his daughter in a dungeon cellar for 24 years may have started sexually abusing her when she was as young as 12, the chief investigator told The Associated Press Saturday.

Authorities say they expect to receive the alleged abuser Josef Fritzl's old court records early next week that Austrian media say document a 1967 rape allegation.

Police say Fritzl has confessed to fathering seven children with his now 42-year-old daughter Elisabeth, who was locked away aged 18. They say three of the children were hidden in the dungeon of the Amstetten apartment building and that Fritzl confessed to burning the body of one child after it died in infancy.

Fritzl was an "absolute ruler" in his household whose tyranny caused most of his seven children with his wife Rosemarie to flee the home as soon as they were old enough, chief investigator Col. Franz Polzer told The AP.

"He forbid anyone to ask even where he was or what he was doing," Polzer said.

Fritzl's children have given investigators consistent reports of daily life in the family with Rosemarie, Polzer said. Elisabeth has described the difficulties she experienced with her father even before her imprisonment, Polzer said.

He declined to confirm an Austrian media report that Elisabeth ran away from home as a teenager, but noted she may have been sexually abused by him as young as 12 or 13.

Media reports suggest Fritzl was arrested in the 1960s in Linz and may have served prison time. Police have declined to comment.

But the Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten daily carried an excerpt of what it said was a 1967 court record found in the state archives in Linz, in which a Josef F. was accused of breaking into the apartment of a 24-year-old nurse and raping her.

The daughter of a former employer of Fritzl backed up the reports.

"He was hired even though he had a record," said Sigrid Reisinger, who heads the Amstetten construction material firm Zehetner and whose father employed Fritzl there from 1969-71. She said the alleged crime was of a sexual nature but did not recall details.

Lower Austria prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek says the file of old court records should arrive Monday or Tuesday in St. Poelten, where Fritzl is being held.

But he refused to comment on its contents.

"I do not yet know the contents," Sedlacek said. "The file deals with the accused."

Investigators are also combing the property where Fritzl lived, including the three underground, windowless rooms where he held Elisabeth and three of her children captive. Polzer would report next week on whatever new details emerge. Watch a former tenant describe loud noises from the cellar »

Investigators are also questioning the 100 people who rented rooms in the house from Fritzl over the years.

"We are trying to see everything that might deal with his past," Sedlacek said, indicating that the old court records could be particularly useful. "We need this to get a better picture of him."

Authorities have said that what appears to have been Fritzl's crime came to their attention April 19, when Elisabeth's eldest daughter was admitted to a hospital suffering from an unidentified infection.

Baffled doctors appealed on TV for her mother to come forward because they needed information about the girl's medical history. Fritzl then accompanied Elisabeth to the hospital April 26, and her story came to light, authorities said.

Elisabeth's three other children by Fritzl -- a son and two daughters -- were removed from the cellar by him as babies, police said. Fritzl and his wife, who was told Elisabeth had abandoned the children, adopted one and had effective custody of two others.

Fritzl faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on rape charges, the most grave of his alleged offenses. However, prosecutors said Tuesday they were investigating whether he can be charged with "murder through failure to act" in connection with the infant's death. That is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. E-mail to a friend

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