The lawyer for Austrian sex offender Josef Fritzl, who kept his own daughter prisoner for 24 years and fathered seven children with her, is applying for his release from prison.

Astrid Wagner told Sky News on Tuesday she hopes to move him to a nursing home.

Fritzl, now 88, was jailed for life in 2009 for killing one of his children through neglect, as well as rape, incest, and enslaving his daughter.

Who is Josef Fritzl?

A new psychiatric report on Fritzl, who has dementia, has said he no longer poses a danger to the public, Austrian public broadcaster ORF said, so a court may now decide whether to move him to a normal prison.

But his lawyer believes he should be out of jail and said she is in the process of applying for his conditional discharge.

In 2008, Fritzl’s daughter, Elisabeth, by that time aged 42, told police she had been held prisoner by her abusive father for years.

Moldova’s ‘first dog’ bites Austrian president on the hand during official visit

Rhino kills zookeeper and seriously injures another in Austria

Austria flooding: River levels reach 100-year high amid storms

He lured Elisabeth into the cellar of the family home in Amstetten in 1984, when she was 18 years old, and told everyone, including his wife, that she had run away and joined a cult.

His crimes only came to light when one of his children became critically ill.

After Fritzl took her to hospital, police issued an appeal for Elisabeth to come forward.

Fritzl released Elisabeth from the cellar and the police were alerted to her reappearance and she told them she had been held captive for more than two decades.

Speaking to ORF on Monday, Ms Wagner said her client “has a right to be treated with “human dignity”, which, she said, is “only possible in a nursing home and not in a prison”.

Pointing to his physical and cognitive deterioration, she said he had “distortions of reality”, although he was “not severely demented”.

Ms Wagner said she was convinced that Fritzl felt “honest, genuine, deeply felt remorse”, because he “destroyed the beautiful life he had by doing something to his family”.

Fritzl is being held in a high-security unit for mentally disturbed offenders in Stein Prison, in the town of Krems in northeast Austria.

Under Austrian law, anyone sentenced to life is eligible for conditional release after 15 years and Fritzl, who was arrested in 2008, reached that mark in 2023.

In 2023, Fritzl claimed in an interview that he thought his family would “forgive” him for his crimes and he would be “reunited” with them.

He told The Sun he was a fan of King Charles and watched the coronation on TV.

Related posts:

What is Sharia law and how has the Taliban interpreted it? Ottawa police chief resigns as Trudeau invokes emergency powers to crack down on trucker protests Kim makes appearance as North Korea celebrates his late father’s birthday Earthquake hits popular holiday island of Madeira British journalist reveals he lost half a leg and a foot in bombing that killed two colleagues One man’s perilous mission to ease civilians’ plight on Ukraine frontline Argentina’s vice president jailed for corruption – but won’t actually head behind bars 100m-high wall of sand towers above Chinese region during storm UK defence spending as share of GDP falls despite Russia’s war in Ukraine Cat killing competition for children cancelled after backlash As Swiss glaciers melt at alarming rate, voters go to polls over ambitious plans to tackle climate change More than 250,000 flee Sudan safe zone after takeover by militia responsible for Darfur destruction