Josef Fritzl’s daughter Elisabeth, 52, finds love with bodyguard, 29, assigned to protect her after 24 years locked in evil dad’s rape dungeon
Ten years ago, Elisabeth Fritzl was released from the cellar in Austria where her dad Josef held her in captivity
JOSEF Fritzl’s daughter has found love with a bodyguard assigned to protect her after spending 24 years locked in her evil dad's rape dungeon.
Ten years ago, Elisabeth was released from the soundproofed underground cellar where her dad raped her more than 3,000 times and fathered seven kids with her.
After escaping from her horrific ordeal, Elisabeth was given a new name and moved to a tiny hamlet in the Austrian countryside to start a new life at the age of 42.
She fell in love with her bodyguard, Thomas Wagner - who is 23 years her junior - after spending months together when she was freed, Oesterreich newspaper reported.
He was assigned to guard her and the six surviving children she had with her father while she was imprisoned in a cellar for 24 years.
"They are a couple," a source told the newspaper. "Everyone saw from the beginning how secure she felt with him."
The relationship is said to have given Elisabeth "renewed strength" in her journey towards normality.
Thomas moved to live with Elisabeth and her children, now aged between 17 and 31.
One of the team of psychiatric carers revealed that the romance has helped her overcome the traumas of her past.
'LOVE IS THE STRONGEST FORCE'
The psychiatrist said: “This is vivid proof of love being the strongest force in the world.
“With the approval of her doctors she has ceased psychiatric therapies while she gets on with her life – learning to drive, helping her children with their homework, making friends with people in her locality.
“She lost the best years of her life in that cellar; she is determined that every day remaining to her will be filled with activity.”
Elisabeth was just 18 when she was drugged by her father and imprisoned in a dungeon he built beneath the family home in the Austrian town of Amstetten two hours from Vienna.
She was subjected to daily rapes and was held captive in squalid conditions where she gave birth to seven of her father's children in darkness.
Fritzl’s horrific crimes were only discovered when one of the children, Kerstin, slipped into a coma and he took her to hospital where doctors noted her malnourished condition and rotting teeth.
When Elisabeth was given permission to finally leave the sex dungeon to visit Kerstin in hospital, she was arrested and subsequently told the police about the horrific crimes her father had committed.
Soon after her release Elisabeth started to develop an obsession with cleanliness, showering up to 10 times a day, according to reports.
Fritzl, who said during his trial that he "actually meant well", was jailed for life in March 2009.
LOST WILL TO LIVE
His health is rapidly declining and he reportedly doesn't want to live anymore as he rots in prison for turning his daughter into a sex slave.
Ten years ago the 84-year-old monster was discovered to have kept his daughter Elisabeth in a soundproof dungeon.
Now his fellow inmates believe the end may soon be near.
Fritzl, who is currently behind bars in Krems-Stein prison in Austria, is reportedly suffering from dementia and his condition has deteriorated in recent weeks.
A fellow prisoner told local media: “Fritzl was and still is separated from everyone else.
“He has totally withdrawn himself and barely leaves his cell. He doesn’t want contact with others, and all together it looks as though he has resigned himself to dying.”
He added that the other inmates do not want anything to do with Austria's most infamous convict.
LOATHED BY OTHER INMATES
The prisoner said: “Just hearing his name makes me nauseous.”
The poor woman’s ordeal finally came to an end on 19th April 2008.
Officially, Austrian authorities have refused to comment on Fritzl's state.
He is said to be extremely unpopular with other inmates and has to be kept in solitary confinement with four guards watching him.
In March 2016, Fritzl lost several teeth after getting into a punch-up with another inmate after prisoners set up a fake online dating profile for him.
In 2017, Fritzl paid £462 GBP to have his surname changed to Mayrhoff.
Unnamed inmates claimed that Fritzl, otherwise known as prisoner HNR 90632, wants to spend the last days of his life in "anonymity".
Fritzl's infamous house in Amstetten was bought by Herbert and Ingrid Houska for £143,581 GBP and it has since been renovated into 10 separate flats.
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Herbert believes that the refurbishment wiped away the property’s dark history.
He said: “The stigma surrounding Amstetten has gone. I think really something beautiful has emerged and the past has been buried. Many residents congratulate me and are happy.
According to reports, the basement where Elisabeth was held has since been filled in by the Austrian authorities to prevent other perverts from worshipping it as a shrine.
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