Josef Fritzl lawyer wants him freed from jail for 'social training' and coffee
Horrific cellar rape monster Josef Fritzl's lawyer has applied for him to be allowed out of jail for special 'social training' to enjoy coffees in local cafes. The 90-year-old who caged his own daughter for 24 years, fathering seven children through years of abuse, has already requested early release from prison.
But in an exclusive interview his lawyer Astrid Wagner now reveals she has just also formally petitioned for Fritzl to get out on a special "social training" scheme.
This means he could very soon be enjoying day visits to Vienna, and coffees in local cafes, despite not having even been officially released from prison. Fritzl has already been transferred from a secure psychiatric facility to a regular prison. Recently the Mirror revealed how a man brutally kills a woman on first date and leave her body parts around town.
Dr Wagner said: 'I've also filed a contingent application, so that he'll now be allowed out, you know, to drink coffee, get outside a bit, so he'll soon be seen in a café near Krems, perhaps in just a few weeks even. It's a kind of social training, which means he now has to learn how a mobile phone works and how to order coffee in a café, and things like that.
'And simply do things independently again, like opening and closing doors and locking them. They all forget how to do that in prison. So it could well be that in a few weeks she'll be sitting in a café."
'And yes, he'll be in a café with a psychologist. There's a very nice café near the correctional facility, and he'll be going there for coffee soon. In terms of how he is doing now, I can say that he seems very fit again, it's just his mind, unfortunately, but he doesn't need a Zimmer frame, he has one, but he can walk without it, he always comes without it, and he can tolerate the heat very well.'
'So it could very, very well be that in a few weeks she'll be sitting in a café. And that, for example, he first gets 12 hours of leave and then goes on a day trip to Vienna. '
She added: 'What is important now is that Fritzl is failing to take his dementia medication, that is one reason why further detention is unconstitutional Itviolates the Human Rights Convention because he no longer understands the purpose of his detention. So, that's quite clear.'
It will now be up to a panel of judges in Krems to decide whether the man convicted of murder, rape, incest, slavery and severe coercion should be allowed back into society. As Fritzl is the only person in Austrian history ever convicted of slavery, critics are horrified.
Veteran crime reporter Michael Koch slammed the bid, pointing out that Fritzl is not behind bars 'just' for locking his daughter in a cellar – but for a catalogue of crimes so vile they shook the world. Wagner insists even Fritzl 'deserves a chance,' but the thought of him walking free is sparking outrage across Austria.
The case will reignite the debate over whether people like Fritzl should ever taste freedom again. In a recent interview Tory party leader Kemi Badenoch, revealed that she found the Fritzl case so disturbing that she lost all faith in God, and it 'blew out a candle' on her faith.
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