WRAP Fritzl sentenced to life in a psychiatric hospital ADDS leaves court

(19 Mar 2009) SHOTLIST
AP Television
1. Various exterior shots of court and detention centre
2. Close of plaque on building
Pool
3. Pan from people standing up to judges entering courtroom
4. Wide of defendant Josef Fritzl being led towards courtroom surrounded by guards
5. Various of Fritzl inside courtroom
6. Back shot of Fritzl in courtroom
7. Guard closing door
Pool
8. Various of Fritzl being led out of courtroom after conviction
9. Fritzl's lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, in courtroom
10. SOUNDBITE (German) Rudolf Mayer, Defence lawyer for Josef Fritzl:
"The conviction was a logical consequence of the confession. For some 3000 incidents of rape, 24-year imprisonment in a basement, plus homicide, to receive this kind of conviction is evident."
AP Television
11. Wide exterior of court with media outside
STORYLINE
A jury has convicted Austrian incest father Josef Fritzl of homicide and sentenced him to life imprisonment in a secure psychiatric facility.
Fritzl also was convicted of enslavement, rape, incest, forced imprisonment and coercion for holding his daughter captive for 24 years and
fathering her seven children.
Fritzl accepted Thursday's verdicts and waived his right to appeal.
The homicide count - "murder by neglect" in German - was the most serious of the charges against 73-year-old Fritzl, and the jury gave him the maximum punishment allowed by law.
His lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, said the conviction was a "logical consequence" of Fritzl's guilty plea.
The verdict brought a dramatic end to a case that has drawn worldwide attention.
Initially he pleaded guilty to incest and forced imprisonment, and partially guilty to rape and coercion.
Fritzl's daughter Elisabeth was the prosecution's key witness.
Now 42, she was 18 when he imprisoned her in the squalid, windowless cellar he built beneath the family's home in the town of Amstetten, where he raped her for years, sometimes in front of the children.
The homicide charge came for the death of a two-day-old twin boy - Michael - born to Elisabeth in April 1996, who prosecutors say might have survived with proper medical care had he and his mother not been locked in the basement.
Police say DNA tests prove Fritzl is the biological father of all six surviving children, three of whom never saw daylight until the crime was exposed 11 months ago.
The other three children were brought upstairs to be raised by Fritzl and his wife, Rosemarie, who was led to believe they were abandoned by Elisabeth when she ran off to join a cult.
Elisabeth and her six surviving children, who range in age from 6 to 20, have spent months recovering in a psychiatric clinic and at a secret location.

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