As mentioned earlier, Fritzl, 73, changed his plea on day three of his trial, saying he was guilty of all charges, including murdering by neglect one of the seven children he fathered while he imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth in a homemade basement dungeon for 24 years. He initially denied murdering Michael, a twin born in the cellar, by refusing to get him medical treatment. He changed his plea on Wednesday after seeing his daughter in court, according to The Telegraph. He burst into tears and told the jury, "I regret from the bottom of my heart what I did to my family. Unfortunately I can't make amends for it. I can only try to find ways to limit the damage that has been done."

Fritzl was found guilty on all counts, including murder, rape, incest, false imprisonment and coercion in a unanimous verdict, reports Telegraph. He was also the first man convicted of slavery in Austria. Fritzl's lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, said his client would not appeal the ruling and that it was "the logical consequence of his guilty plea."

Judge Andrea Humer told Frizl he would serve his life sentence in "a psychiatric unit for people with an abnormality of mind." However, according to The Telegraph, if he responds to treatment and is considered rehabilitated he will be transferred to a normal prison and be eligible for parole in 15 years. Under Austrian law, sentences are served concurrently not consecutively, and his longest sentence for the murder of his child carries a 15 year sentence. A spokesmen for the court said Fritzl could be released even sooner if transferred. "As he has already served 11 months on remand, that would go down to 14 years from now," said Franz Cutka, vice president of the court. Many criticized the court's decision, but Cutka said the Austrian justice system aims at "bringing the offenders back within the norms of society" rather than just punishing criminals.

Either way, Fritzl will have a much more comfortable life than the one he provided to his children in his cellar. During his imprisonment in the hospital unit at Mittersteig prison in Vienna, Fritzl will have his own cell with a shower, color TV, and personal computer, and be allowed to keep a pet. He will share a sitting room, kitchen, and outdoor garden with other inmates and be allowed to study a foreign language through the prison's learning center.

Rudolf Mayer, Fritzl's lawyer, said, "He doesn't mind where he goes. It's not like it's a hotel but he would like a prison close to home because it may be that relatives will go to see him." It's hard to imagine though what relatives would come see him. His sister-in-law, Christine Renner, said after hearing of the comparatively comfortable conditions in the psychiatric center, "What right does he have to live like this after all he has destroyed?" She added, "They should have put him in a pit, put a lid on it, locked it and thrown away the key."

As for Fritzl's wife Rosemarie, she has started divorce proceedings and was not called as a witness in the trial or questioned as a possible accomplice, reports Time, because the chief investigator said, "no wife would be able to accept such a thing if she had any knowledge about it." Elisabeth Fritzl has the right to bring a civil suit against Fritzl but Austrian officials say there are no plans to change any laws as a result of this case. Austria's social services never properly investigated when Elisabeth first ran away from home at 16 to escape her father's sexual abuse, police didn't question Fritzl's story that she'd joined a cult after he imprisoned her two years later, and the courts allowed him to adopt the three "upstairs children" that he said Elisabeth left on his doorstep over the years. However, there will be no official inquires into failures by the authorities that could have spared Elisabeth from her 24 years of imprisonment and torture.

Josef Fritzl Will Be Locked Up In Comfort [The Telegraph]
Josef Fritzl Trial: Loophole Means Fritzl Could Be Released In 14 Years [The Telegraph]
Austria Hastens to Close the Book on Ugliest Abuse Case [Time]

Earlier: Fritzl Trial Day 3: Josef Fritzl Pleads Guilty On All Counts

"When I saw the video tapes I realised for the first time how cruel I was to Elisabeth," he said. The 11 hours of videotaped testimony revealed many terrible details, and it was supposedly what led Fritzl to recognize his years of "sick behavior," as he put it. Per the testimony of Elisabeth and her brother Herald, the "sick behavior" had been going on for the last 31 years. More details from Day 3:

• According to the Independent Fritzl first began abusing his daughter when she was only 11. Elisabeth's story was backed up in court by testimony from Herald, who told the court that Elisabeth was "terrified" of her father, and that he was "sexually obsessed" with Elisabeth from a very young age.
• Fritzl's abuse started with forcing Elisabeth to watch pornography with him, and sending her pornographic notes, the Daily Mail reports. "Somehow, I don't know why, my father seemed to choose me for himself," she said.
• It was the years of abuse that caused Elisabeth to run away at age 16. She was found by the local police, and brought back home. A little over a year later, Fritzl imprisoned her in the basement.
• During her teenage years, Herald was her sole confident. However, he too was terrified of his father. Herald suffered repeated beatings at his father's hands, and felt that he was powerless to help his younger sister.
• Fritzl claims that his daughter was wild, and that he caught her drinking on several occasions. He says that by imprisoning Elisabeth he was "saving her from herself." He also initially attempted to refute Elisabeth's accusations by saying that she was "confused" about the early years of abuse, and didn't correctly remember who had abused her.
• The court also saw a 30-page psychiatric report by psychiatrist Adelheid Kastner, which warns that Fritzl will never be sane, according to the Mirror:
  

  Dr. Kastner warned: "During the entire period of his crimes he was aware of his responsibility and thus his criminal liability.

  "They reach the dimension of a high-grade mental abnormality. It is to be feared that in future he will again commit acts with serious consequences."

• The report claims that for someone "born to rape he held out for a relatively long time." Dr. Kastner believes that Fritzl's childhood had a huge impact on his current mental state. Fritzl was unloved, and "at best regarded as a calamity."
• Also in the report: Fritzl apparently suffered from a condition as a child which made him embarrassed about his penis.
• Dr. Kastner has recommended that Fritzl spend the rest of his life in a secure institution for criminals with mental problems. She believes that there is an absolute risk that Fritzl will re-offend. Fritzl has expressed fantasies of spending his last days with his wife, but Kastner says this "cannot be considered as something that is very likely to happen."
• The Daily Mail reports that Fritzl's guilty plea includes his recognition that his actions lead to the death of his infant son Michael. The newborn died three days after his birth in 1996 after developing breathing problems, which Fritzl ignored:

  'I don't know why I have not seen the baby would have needed help. All I can say is that it was not planned,' Fritzl said today.

  'I don't know why I didn't help. I just overlooked it. I thought the little one would survive.'

  Admitting the murder means the pensioner now faces a likely life sentence and will die in jail.

• Unfortunately, this may not speed up the trial; however, the verdict is expected to come as early as this Thursday.
• A reporter for the Daily Beast has revealed that Elisabeth is now in a safe location, and plans to start her life over under an assumed identity:

  During the trial, Elisabeth and her children are staying at a nearby psychological center. She will not have to confront her father in court, but she may be asked to provide further video testimony. After the trial, she plans to live under a new identity in an undisclosed location with her son Felix. Kerstin and Stefan suffer from severe social and physical disabilities, including rotting gums and immunity problems from being raised without sunlight. They, along with Fritzl's wife and the upstairs children, have also taken new identities.

• Yesterday the court confirmed that Fritzl had been placed on suicide watch following the viewing of Elisabeth's testimony and his subsequent admission of guilt.

Josef Fritzl Trial: He'll Always Be A Danger Says Doctor's Report [Mirror]
Fritzl Lets The Mask Slip As His Daughter Tells Her Tragic Story [Independent]
Josef Fritzl Trial: Daughter Elisabeth Reveals Sick Beast's Sick Sex Acts As He Forced Her To View Porn [Mirror]
Josef Fritzl On Suicide Watch As ‘Avenging Angel' Daughter Gives Damning Testimony [Telegraph]
Fritzl Pleads Guilty To ALL Charges As He Tells Court: 'My Daughter's Evidence Made Me Realise How Cruel I Had Been' [Daily Mail]
In Change Of Heart, Fritzl Pleads Guilty To All Counts [WSJ]
My Life In The Dungeon [Daily Beast]

According to the Times of London, Elisabeth told Austrian judge Andrea Humer in an interview, "He was very brutal against me…And when I did not agree to have sex, then the kids would suffer. We knew he would kick us or be bad to us." The Times also notes, "Elisabeth said that her father threatened to leave them to rot in the cellar, which had no windows and was sealed by an electronically-locked door."

Unlike Elisabeth's children by her father — three of whom were kept underground with Elisabeth and three of whom were raised in the Fritzl's house proper — Alicja's two children were given up for adoption, and now authorities are trying to track down the two boys, ages 3 and 18 months, to see if Krzysztof is really the boys' father. The potential incest was discovered by Alicja's mother, Teresa, who said she learned about the abuse when she read Alicja's diary. However, the Times of London also reports that, Krzysztof "used to order [Teresa] to watch television whenever he went into the girl's room, closed it and took out the door handle." And when Teresa confronted Krzysztof about the abuse, "He intimidated us; he threatened that my daughter will be dead, that he will destroy us all, if anyone learned about it.”

There are no words. Actually, that's not entirely true: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the crime a "tragedy" and is now pushing for a chemical castration law for pedophiles. Jeez. Fritzl is currently in jail awaiting a trial which is slated for next year. According to the Daily Mail, Frizl "is expected to face up to 3,000 rape charges plus charges of child cruelty and false imprisonment." Krzysztof is also in jail, and police are currently in the midst of his investigation.

Man Dubbed 'Polish Josef Fritzl' Arrested [Times of London]
Elisabeth Fritzl Tells Of Father's Cruelty [Times of London]
'My ordeal at the hands of my all-powerful father': Elisabeth Fritzl Tells Of The Nightmare In The Cellar [Daily Mail]

But it's not just photographers looking to profit off of the Fritzl family's misery. A hospital worker allegedly snapped some pictures of Elisabeth and her children and tried to sell them for upwards of 200,000 euros. Two out of three of Elisabeth's children who were kept in the cellar with her — Stefan, 18, and Felix, 6, — along with the three raised above-ground, Alexander 12, Monika 14 and Lisa 15, are all at the hospital with their mother. Elisabeth's oldest daughter, Kerstin, who was raised in the cellar, is still in a coma, but sources say she is on the mend.

Elisabeth is planning to be interviewed for her television debut by reporter Christoph Feurstein, the same guy who interviewed Natascha Kampusch, the other young Austrian woman who was locked in a cellar for several years. Elisabeth is expected to discuss the child she had who died and was subsequently thrown in the furnace by her father. "It might not be good for the psychological healing process but Elisabeth's heart pumps nothing but pure venom for him," a source tells the Daily Mail. It's vaguely ironic that the Mail, a rag that publishes tabloid pictures of Lisa Marie Presley merely to poke fun at the pregnant star "piling on the pounds," would be the paper to suggest that the media's gone too far in the Fritzl case. But at least someone's pointing it out.

Elisabeth Fritzl Is To Talk About The 24 Years She Was Imprisoned In Her Father's Dungeon On Austrian TV [Daily Mail]
Exclusive: Kerstin Fritzl Winning Fight [Sunday Mirror]

Austrian Man Locked His Daughter In The Basement For 24 Years
Who Is Josef Fritzl?

Another issue raised by the Guardian (and our own commenters) is how Fritzl's wife, Rosemarie, did not know what was going on right under her nose. Franz Pölzer, head of the criminal investigation of Fritzl, says"It defies logical thinking that a woman who has had seven children with her husband would make it possible for him to have another relationship with his daughter and have another seven children."

For now, the focus is on psychologically rehabilitating Elisabeth and her six children. "It could take between five and eight years," to restore any sort of normalcy to their lives, according to Mas Friedrich, the psychiatrist who looked after Natasha Kampusch — the other woman famously kept in an Austrian cellar. Trying to determine the motivations of a complete psychotic like Fritzl, however, could take an eternity

Josef Fritzl: The Unanswered Questions [Guardian]
Austria: Natasha Kampusch Says Fritzl Children Should Stay In Cellar [Times of London]

Earlier: Austrian Man Locked His Daughter In The Basement For 24 Years

This crime, perpetrated in the town of Amstetten, 93 miles outside of Vienna, was only discovered because Elisabeth's 19-year-old daughter, Kerstin, became so seriously ill that she had to go to the hospital. A DNA test done on Kersten showed that Josef was her biological father, and that set off an investigation that uncovered Josef's "house of horrors," as many papers are calling it. One of the more bizarre aspects of the gruesome tale is that Josef's wife, Elisabeth's mother Rosemarie, reportedly didn't know about what was going on in her cellar, and thought the three children that she and Josef were raising above ground were left on their doorstep by the still-"missing" Elisabeth.

The case is somewhat of a national embarrassment for Austria, as in 2006, it was discovered that a woman named Natascha Kampusch had been held in a cellar for 8 years by an abductor, Wolfgang Priklopil, who had kidnapped her when she was 10 years old. Austrian newspaper Der Standard said in an op-ed about the crimes, "The entire nation must ask itself just what is fundamentally going wrong."

All six of the children — three boys and three girls — who were raised in the Fritzl's household are now in the care of authorities. There was a seventh child, who was the twin of another one of the children, but it died shortly after birth and was thrown into an incinerator by Josef. Police spokesman Franz Polzer told the BBC, "[The children] are being cared for individually - those between 12 and 16 years of age who grew up with their grandparents, and two boys who, when they came out yesterday with their mother, saw the daylight for the first time in their lives."

Austrian 'Hid Daughter In Cellar' [BBC]
Austrian Detectives Study Cellar [BBC]
Austrian Admits 24-year Abuse Of Daughter In Cellar [Reuters]
'House of Horrors' Father Confesses [CNN]