Sex offender, Josef Fritzl kept his daughter Elisabeth locked in the cellar of the family home in Amstetten, raped her and fathered seven children with her.
Fritzl’s case gained worldwide attention in 2008 when Elisabeth told police she had been held prisoner by her abusive father for 24 years.
He lured Elisabeth into the cellar of the family home Amstetten in 1984, when she was 18 years old.
Then he told his wife Rosemary that she had run away and joined a cult.
He was jailed for life in 2009 after he was convicted of rape, enslavement and murder for locking up and raping his daughter for over 24 years in Austria.
Fritzl has now claimed in an interview that he thinks his family will ‘forgive’ him for his crimes and believes he will be ‘reunited’ with them.
He will ‘definitely’ see his grandchildren again as he languishes in jail.
The 87-year-old Austrian told the Sun he is ‘always thinking’ of his family and also said he was a fan of King Charles and watched the coronation on TV.
Speaking on Tuesday, Fritzl said he expects to live until 130 – and is convinced that his grandchildren will see it in themselves to forgive him by then.
From Austria’s Stein Prison in Krems an der Donau, Fritzl told The Sun in a statement issued through his lawyer Astrid Wagner: ‘I miss my family very, very much.
‘I am always thinking of them, and how I would like to see my grandchildren. ‘I am sure that we are going to be reunited and I think they are going to forgive me for what I have done.
He added that he is ‘extremely sorry’ for what he has done and regrets his crimes.
He also told the paper he watched the whole coronation on TV and thought it was ‘splendid’. ‘I’m a monarchist. I’m a big fan of King Charles,’ he added.
Fritzl pleaded guilty to all counts of rape, false imprisonment, manslaughter by negligence and incest in March 2009 after he was found to have kept his daughter, Elisabeth, in a basement underneath the family home from the age of 18.
The monster from Amstetten, Lower Austria, reportedly started abusing Elisabeth from the age of 11 and fathered seven children with her, with three remaining in captivity, three being raised by Fritzl and his wife and one sadly dying.
In the interview, Fritzl – who is understood to be suffering from dementia – claimed to have reformed after undergoing therapy inside.
Last month it was revealed he had written a memoir detailing how he decided to imprison his daughter and the efforts he went to in order to hide it from his wife.
Despite raising three of the children fathered between Fritzl and their daughter, Rosemarie Fritzl – his wife, now 84 – did not know what was going on.
Fritzl reportedly convinced his wife that Elisabeth had run away to join a cult. He seeks to reconcile with his estranged ex-wife.
Elisabeth, who is now 57, was reported in 2019 to have found love with a bodyguard assigned to protect her. Her identity was changed and she moved to the Austrian countryside to start over.
Her partner, Thomas Wagner, moved in with Elisabeth and her children, who are now aged between 17 and 31.
She was said to have received effective therapy which has helped her overcome her past trauma.
