Home where Josef Fritzl held his daughter as a sex slave for 24 years bought by ‘owner of local strip club’
Monster fathered seven kids by his own captive daughter in basement prison of home in Amstetten, Austria
THE house where Austrian incest monster Josef Fritzl locked his daughter in the cellar for 24 years has been sold to a woman who runs a local strip club, it has been reported.
The Niederoesterreiche Nachrichten newspaper quoted a man named Herbert Houska as saying that his wife Ingrid and her business partner have bought the building in Amstetten in northern Austria.
The pair are planning to renovate the house and convert it into flats, Houska told the paper.
Other reports revealed the pair run a local strip club named Bar Josefine, as well as the Stadtbrauhof pub.
Herbert Houska was quoted as saying: “It can't stay empty for ever. We need to bring life into it.
“In two years it will be a house like any other”.
He told the paper: “We have lots of trainees, some from (nearby towns) Persenbeug and Ybbs, and so we need employee flats.”
The Die Presse newspaper speculated that women working in Bar Josefine could be put up in the house.
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The Austria Press Agency quoted the liquidator of Fritzl's assets, Walter Anzboeck, as saying that the selling price was 160,000 euros (£135,000).
The keys are set to be handed over this week.
The cellar where Fritzl kept his daughter Elisabeth – fathering seven children by her – is no longer usable, having been filled with cement in 2013.
Three of the children lived upstairs with Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie, while three were imprisoned in the tiny cellar.
Her ordeal came to an end in April 2008 when the oldest child, then 19, had to be taken to hospital, bringing the gruesome story to light and attracting massive media interest.
After their release, one of the kids who had been kept in the basement prison did not know what the sky or fields looked like.
And another suffered from spinal problems because he was taller than the cramped cellar.
All have now been given new identities and live in a secret location in Austria.
Fritzl, now 81, was found guilty of murder in 2009 over the death of one of Elisabeth's babies.
He was also found guilty of incest, sequestration and 3,000 counts of rape, and was jailed for life.
The fate of the house has long been a topic of debate, with authorities initially concerned it could become a gruesome tourist attraction.
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