Amstetten incest case: adult representation for Josef F.?

The decisive factor was probably a psychiatric report by the expert Adelheid Kastner, which was obtained in the course of the decision to transfer the 89-year-old to normal prison.

The lawyer will now appeal against this in the coming week. For Wagner, the appointment of an adult representative is “not tenable,” she said in an interview with APA. “He has no business to attend to.” Although F. has “beginning dementia and delusional episodes,” an adult representative is neither necessary nor justified, said Wagner. F. has now moved into a normal prison cell in Stein Prison. The lawyer believes it is much more important that he is accommodated in an age-appropriate manner. The Krems Regional Court, which is superior to the District Court, was not available to APA for comment on Sunday.

The transfer of Josef F. from measures to normal prison – based on a decision by a three-member panel of the Krems Regional Court – became legally binding at the end of May. In the same decision, the panel denied a general conditional release from normal prison for the 89-year-old.

• Also read: No objection: Josef F. is sent to normal prison

The incest case in Amstetten became known at the end of April 2008. Josef F. (who now has a different name) had kept his daughter in a basement dungeon for 24 years and fathered seven children with her – one died after birth. In March 2009, the defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment in St. Pölten, and at the same time was ordered to be placed in a correctional facility due to his dangerousness within the meaning of Section 21 Paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code. Josef F. was found guilty of murder by omission, slave trade, deprivation of liberty, rape, incest and serious coercion – and thus on all counts.