The most compelling news item at the moment is the horrific story of Elisabeth Fritzl, imprisoned and sexually abused by her father for nearly 25 years.Elisabeth is a couple of years younger than me so I could have been her. While my life has not been particularly extraordinary, it has been mine. Her life has been stolen by that man. How could a father do that to his daughter? How could a person do that to another person? Why her? She had other sisters.
She might have had a wonderful future before her, with a loving husband. Has that man also now stolen her capacity to love naturally?
He imprisoned Elisabeth, aged 19, then sexually abused her continuously. He had had seven children with his wife, he went ahead and had another seven, only six of whom survived with his daughter. Why didn't he use condoms? Why did he let himself father children through incest?
Then, having fathered those children, he chose three to live above ground. Why only three? Why those three? How did he bring them up into the family? He declared that Elisabeth who was supposed to have run away to join a sect, had come back and dumped the babies on her parents' doorstep. No one thought this odd. No one tried to remember other sects getting rid of those babies born to sect members. No one thought that in fact sects need babies for the next generation of members.
Everyone believed this story that their mother had sneaked out THREE times from the sect and dumped her babies with her parents. No one tried to find the sect that dumped babies or check that Elisabeth was not in danger by being forced to dump her babies. Did anyone think to do a DNA test to verify that they were her offspring?
I read that Elisabeth is a broken woman. Who wouldn't be after being kept prisoner to be used as a sex toy by her father, and having to bring up two boys and a girl in a confined space. Boys are active creatures. They need to run about and use their energy. How did she manage? How did she feel when her babies were removed from her? Did that man have plans to abuse her daughter too? Had he already?
What if that man had had an accident and been killed? Had he left the code to the door to the cellar anywhere? Would Elisabeth and her three children been entombed and left to starve to death?
Josef Fritzl will end his days, hopefully, in prison. Not in solitary confinement, but confined with men who treat monsters such as him with their own brand of sexual violence. My hope is that it'll be up his arse, in rounds, continuously, no lube. He's 73 now and in robust health. That's several years of violent abuse he can look forward to and I hope he gets it. It would be but small payback for ruining his daughter's and her children's lives.
No mercy.
