Archives > Volume 7 Issue 20 - March 20, 2009

It was the maximum sentence for the most serious charge Fritzl faced: one count of murder, for allowing one of the babies he fathered with his daughter to die shortly after birth.

The eight-member jury returned a unanimous verdict on all counts. Fritzl, dressed in a gray suit, blue shirt and dark tie, stared blankly ahead and showed no emotion as the jury delivered its verdict.

The 73-year-old had pleaded guilty to all charges on Wednesday, but Austrian law requires a jury to return a verdict as well.See more at vol7_iss19 and vol7_iss18.

Fritzl will soon be moved to a detention facility for mentally abnormal offenders, where psychiatrists will evaluate him and decide on therapy. Until then, he will remain in a two-person cell in St. Poelten.

The man who kept his crimes a secret for 24 years until he was exposed last year made a final, emotional apology to the court Thursday morning.

"I am deeply sorry with all my heart for what I have done, but I cannot go back and change it," Fritzl told the court at St. Poelten, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) east of Amstetten, where he and his family lived.

The jury found Fritzl guilty of incest, rape, enslavement and false imprisonment of his daughter Elisabeth. It also found him guilty of two assault charges and murder in the death of the baby, one of twins, which died 66 hours after birth.

Fritzl initially pleaded not guilty to murder, enslavement, and one of the assault charges, and partly guilty to rape. He surprised his own lawyer by changing his plea Wednesday.

Prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser urged the jury Thursday to return a murder conviction. She called Fritzl's admission of guilt a ploy.

"This was not a confession by the accused. It was a change in strategy," she told the court.

Fritzl's lawyer revealed Thursday that Elisabeth had been in court Tuesday, the second day of the trial. Defense attorney Rudolf Mayer said the elder Fritzl noticed his daughter's presence in the final hour of viewing Elisabeth's videotaped testimony.

Josef Fritzl is likely to spend the rest of his life in a mental institution. Times Online News story here.

A court official, Franz Cutka, said that Fritzl could theoretically be released in 15 years - or 14 years including time already served - if doctors considered him cured and a panel of judges ruled that he had been punished enough. It is considered far more likely that he will die either in a psychiatric hospital or mainstream prison.

One in six girls will become a teenage mother... An estimated 18 percent of females nationwide will become teen mothers, according to a new Child Trends research brief. Child Trends newsletter here The brief, Research Brief here, also finds that states vary widely in the estimated percentage of females who will have a baby before the age of 20, ranging from 8% in New Hampshire to 30% in Mississippi.

Additional findings:

• The 2006 estimated percentage of females who will have a teen birth is slightly higher than the 2005 estimate of 17 percent, which reflects a recent increase in the teen birth rate between 2005 and 2006.
• For the nation, the estimated percentage of females becoming teen mothers declined from 25 percent in 1991 to 17 percent in 2005, reflecting a drop in teen birth rates during this period.

In other news... The principal and other staff members at South Oak Cliff High School were supposed to be breaking up fights. Instead, they sent troubled students into a steel utility cage in an athletic locker room to battle it out with bare fists and no head protection, records show. Dallas Morning News story here. Documents obtained by The Dallas Morning News say the "cage fights" took place between 2003 and 2005. The records don't say how many fights may have taken place. Donald Moten, who was principal at South Oak Cliff High at the time, denied any wrongdoing when contacted Wednesday. District investigators learned of the fights as part of an investigation into grade-changing for student athletes that ultimately cost the school its 2006 boys state basketball championship. Internal district reports obtained by The News describe a culture of sanctioned violence in which school employees and even the principal relied on "the cage" to settle disputes and bring unruly students under control.

U.S. authorities have arrested an Irish-born military contractor suspected of hacking into the computers of teenage girls around the world and threatening to post their personal information online unless they sent him revealing photos. MSNBC News story here. Patrick Connolly, who had been living at a U.S. military base in Baghdad, was charged with a single count of computer hacking following his arrest last Friday in Atlanta. Authorities have 30 days to obtain an indictment and more charges could be filed. After investigating him for five years, FBI agents were put back on Connolly's trail last January after he contacted via Facebook one of the teenage girls he had harassed years earlier.

Two more Planned Parenthood clinics have been caught on tape allegedly trying to conceal statutory rape. Fox News story here. College students Lila Rose and Jackie Stollar said they entered the Phoenix clinics posing as 15-year-old girls and told employees that Stollar needed an abortion after being impregnated by her adult "boyfriend." The video they shot shows Stollar apparently telling one clinic that the father in question was "a lot older than" her, and telling the second "he's 27." But rather than contact law enforcement, as is required by Arizona law if an adult-child relationship is revealed, the video shows the staffer at the first clinic state, "we don't ask any questions." The second tells the girls "everything is confidential." Both went on to explain how the "teen" could dodge consent laws to get her abortion without telling her parents, according to the video. According to Liveaction.org, the clinics are the fourth and fifth Planned Parenthood centers implicated in the "Mona Lisa Project" - a developing multi-state undercover probe of Planned Parenthood clinics conducted by student-led non-profit Live Action. Click here to see the video and more on this story from Liveaction.org. Also see eGuide/statutory rape.

A Catholic charity in Kentucky faced an uproar over its efforts to buy a home for four registered sex offenders, continuing what supporters say is a never-ending cycle for low-income offenders trying to get their lives back on track. MSNBC News story here. Members of the Catholic Action Center said they expected to hear fears and objections from the community when they held a forum at a Baptist church in January on their carefully planned purchase. They didn't expect to hear death threats. The residents' extreme reaction has scuttled the center's plan and left its leader wondering if there's anywhere to house the paroled pariahs. The outrage over the plan in Lexington and a similar case in New Hampshire - where a church pastor infuriated neighbors by taking in a convicted child killer released from prison - show the struggles that Christian charities or individuals face in trying to reach some of society's untouchables.

Meanwhile, angry residents of a small central New Hampshire town are demanding that authorities remove a convicted child killer from their community. AP News story here. More than 200 residents of Chichester packed a town selectmen's meeting Tuesday, most of them calling for Raymond Guay's removal during about two hours of emotional testimony. Many parents said their children can't sleep and are afraid to play outside. "I do not feel safe enough to walk to the mailbox, to allow my children to walk to the mailbox," resident Darlene Phelps said. Guay pleaded guilty to murdering a 12-year-old Nashua boy in 1973. Police found the boy's body clad in just socks and undershorts, and glasses and a watch. After 35 years behind bars, Guay was released in September and ordered to serve his parole in New Hampshire. Guay's release followed a failed attempt by state officials to keep him incarcerated as a dangerous sexual predator under federal law.

A jury has convicted a man of murdering four young children who were thrown to their deaths from an Alabama bridge last year. AP News story here. The jury deliberated for only about 40 minutes in Mobile on Thursday before convicting Lam Luong of murder. The defendant, who came to the United States from Vietnam as a teenager, declined an opportunity to address the court and presented no defense witnesses at trial. Prosecutors say the man threw the four children from an 80-foot-high span of a coastal bridge after an argument with his wife. Three of the children were his and the fourth was his wife's with another man. The jury is expected to return Friday to make a recommendation of death or life without parole in the penalty phase. For more on this story see vol6_iss3.

A Muslim cleric whose marriage to a 12-year-old girl triggered controversy in Indonesia has been detained along with the girl's father on suspicion of violating the child protection law, police said Wednesday. AP News story here. Cleric Pujiono Cahyo Widianto, 43, wed the girl before thousands of people in Central Java province last August, arguing that he had committed no crime because he intended to wait until she reached puberty before consummating their relationship. Police Detective Roy Siahaan said the cleric, who runs an Islamic boarding school and several businesses, was officially named a criminal suspect Tuesday following several days of questioning. He has not been charged but is in police detention. On Wednesday, the girl's father, 36-year-old Suroso, also was detained and named a suspect for giving away the bride. Both Suroso, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, and Widianto could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of violating the country's child protection law, which forbids marriage to anyone under 18 years old. The cleric's wedding and proclamations that he intended to also marry two other girls aged 7 and 9 angered many in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation with more than 210 million believers. Complaints came from Religious Affairs Minister Maftuh Basuni, child rights groups and the Indonesia Ulemma Council - the country's top Islamic body.

*for access to member only sites like the New York Times, use the ID "JohnDoeID" and the password "whatever". On sites asking for an email address, feel free to use "info@childprotectionprogram.org"