Josef Fritzl could be free in 14 years

Josef Fritzl, who was yesterday sentenced to life in a top-security psychiatric unit after being convicted of murder, rape and slavery, could be free within 14 years thanks to a legal loophole.

The 73-year-old kidnapped his daughter Elisabeth in 1984 and kept her captive in an dungeon below his home in the Austrian town of Amstetten for 24 years.

He raped her thousands of times and fathered seven children by her, one of whom he murdered, while she was locked in the dungeon.

He pleaded guilty to all the charges against him midway through his trial this week after seeing the daughter he held captive in the courtroom and watching tapes of her harrowing tetimony. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but he could be freed if he lives to the age of 88.

Fritzl, who has told his lawyer he harbours hopes of being released one day, will have to spend the rest of his life in a psychiatric hospital if doctors see no change in his "abnormality of mind", but if he responds to therapy and is considered rehabilitated, he would be transferred to a normal prison. He would then be considered for parole after a mandatory minimum tariff of 15 years.

As he has already served almost a year on remand that means that he could be free 14 years.

Fritzl, currently being held at a jail next to the court, will be taken to a psychiatric unit at the Mittersteig prison in Vienna early next week, where doctors will assess whether he is likely to respond to treatment.

He will be kept on suicide watch there and will share a cell with another inmate.