Fritzl family to receive charity and state aid

Austrians are donating money for the tormented family of Josef Fritzl as the government is looking for ways to provide financial support for the victims that are facing years of therapy.

Aid funds are being set up by media and charities, and celebrities are donating money for the children and the wife of Fritzl, 73. The engineer and property developer locked up his daughter Elisabeth, 42, in a concrete dungeon beneath his house in the town of Amstetten and kept her as a sex slave for 24 years, fathering seven children. One of the children died at birth and its body was thrown into an incinerator by Fritzl.

Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian kidnap victim who was kept for over eight years in a cellar near Vienna and later earned millions from interview deals, donated 25,000 euros to the Fritzl family, after it was revealed that their father and husband was likely to be financially ruined. Other local celebrities as well as politicians have followed suit, in a bid to motivate the public to donate money after it was revealed that the therapy for Fritzl's wife Rosemarie, 68, their daughter Elisabeth, and the six surviving children he fathered with her during the time of her captivity, Kerstin, 19, Stefan, 18, is expected to amount to over one million euros.

Social services announced that they would consider paying thousands of pounds in back-dated child maintenance payments to Elisabeth Fritzl, although her three children that spent their entire life in the dungeon have not yet got Austrian citizenships.

Kerstin, who is now suffering from a mysterious illness and is fighting for her life in a local clinic, as well as her brothers Stefan and Felix have never received an education, as they were born and raised in the cellar, and the state is expected to provide them with a special schooling programme, similar to the case of Mrs Kampusch, who is now receiving private tuition specially tailored for her by school authorities.

As none of the children have ever received an education, money will also be required for their schooling and other needs.

Legal experts announced that the family would be able to sue Fritzl for millions in damages. Andreas Öhler, a Viennese lawyer specialimnsing in damages claims, said: "The damage claims against Josef Fritzl could amount to millions. There are many points for which to claim damages: the sexual abuse of the daughter, her emotional pain after the death of one of her children, the suffering of all of the victims during the imprisonment, the physical pain, the psychological impact and so on." According to Mr Öhler, the opinions of medical and psychiatric experts who would examine the victims could be used for the purposes of the lawsuit that could include claims for physical as well psychological damages.

The Fritzl children, as well as their mother and even his wife, Rosemarie, who has been declared victim and not a suspect by police, could also claim damages that would emerge in the future as a result of their psychological trauma and the psychical abuse following years of imprisonment in the underground bunker.

Original Article -

Josef Fritzl's family to receive charity and state support - Telegraph