The Austrian man who held his daughter captive in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children by her was convicted of rape around the time the daughter was born, his sister-in-law told Austrian media.

The newspaper Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten reproduced what it said was a 1967 court record from state archives in the city of Linz, in which a Josef F. was accused of breaking into the apartment of a 24-year-old nurse and raping her.

Josef Fritzl's sister-in-law, identified as Christine R., told the daily Oesterreich that he had gone to jail for the offence. "I was 16 when he was locked up for rape," she said.

Austrian officials will say only that, if Fritzl had such a rape conviction, it would have been purged from the records after 15 years at the latest. A call to Fritzl's lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, went unanswered yesterday.

The reported conviction dates from shortly after the birth of Fritzl's daughter Elisabeth, now 42, who was released just over a week ago from the cellar where he had fathered seven children with her.

The head of the police investigation, Franz Polzer, said in an interview published yesterday that Fritzl was a classic tyrant personality.

"This man, all of whose crimes were driven by his sexual energy, never once tolerated being asked about his holidays, his absences," he said.

Authorities have said officials followed correct procedures in allowing Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie, who had seven grown-up children of their own, to care for three of the children he had with his daughter, ostensibly after she abandoned them on their doorstep.

Elisabeth was kept imprisoned in a cellar complex beneath the grey apartment block with her three other surviving children - a daughter, now 19, and two sons aged 18 and 5. Until last weekend, the children had never seen sunlight.

Detectives working in the bunker are able to work for only an hour at a time because of the foul air.

They say they are looking at the electrical systems and mechanics of the dungeon, including the hidden, reinforced electric door that Fritzl used to seal it from the house above.

Polzer confirmed a report in the German magazine Der Spiegel that Elisabeth had been restrained on a leash for the early months of her captivity.

Josef Fritzl is being held in a cell in the Lower Austria provincial capital of St Poelten.

Prison director Guenther Moerwald said on Saturday he had been "absolutely no problem ... he knows his situation".

Elisabeth and her surviving children are all being cared for in hospital. One child died shortly after birth.

Doctors said on Saturday the eldest daughter - who Fritzl took to hospital from the cellar two weeks ago - remained critically ill but had stabilized. They have not given a detailed diagnosis.

Police have said they have no suspicions against Fritzl's wife Rosemarie, with whom he shared the house above the cellar.

Investigators are looking at whether Fritzl would have been able to carry out threats to kill his victims with gas if they tried to escape, as he claimed.

"He said he made the threats ... I don't believe they were true, but we are examining the claim," Polzer said.

Police are also piecing together Fritzl's life outside the cellar and in particular, how he fed the victims. "Some witnesses have come forward," Polzer said. "We know Josef Fritzl went to large stores and bought large amounts of food. We have heard about how he sometimes stayed in the cellar overnight and are checking details."

Media have circulated video footage of Fritzl enjoying foreign holidays without his family. Police say he told them the locked door to the cellar would have opened automatically if he had been away for an extended period.

Agencies

(China Daily 05/05/2008 page6)