Friday, March 20, 2009

The Unforgivable

According to the acceptable virtues and unspeakable human vices as interpreted by the Vatican, the Monster of Austria, Josef Fritzl erred as a human being when he repeatedly raped his imprisoned daughter, but because he permitted his daughter to bear seven of his children he failed to commit the cardinal sin of aborting a potential human life. Even the death of his seventh child through a misadventure of the delivery process would not have brought him excommunication, for it would not be seen as deliberate.

That he destroyed so many lives through his viciously brutish diminishment of their humanity, subsumed by his ravenous lust, is another human misadventure. All can be forgiven, if one repents. And, finally, he has repented. He claims to be repentant. He wishes to be spared the fear of the finality of life by exposure to other criminals when he is incarcerated. He fears his life may be taken by some imprisoned criminal who may take a very visceral reaction to such a monster in his near vicinity.

There is a large question looming here with the further revelations of the utter incompetence of the police forces in Austria. Let alone with the social contract in that country, with the seeming disinterest of the society at large in the horrendous fate of too many missing young women. Among whom have been a number of girls - roughly Elizabeth Fritzl's age when she was entombed - when they were raped and murdered. Some of whom were reputed to resemble her physically.

It has been revealed that police detectives now consider the real probability that Josef Fritzel was a public sex offender of long standing before his attention was turned on his own child. Whom he raped repeatedly from the age of 11. This inveterate rapist was convicted in 1967 for raping a young woman, sentenced to 18 months, spent less than a year in jail, and the record of his conviction somehow disappeared.

A string of rapes and murders occurred stretching over a four-decade period of time, all of which in retrospect, can be traced to his near proximity. And since his arrest in 2008 other women have come forward to claim that he had attacked them, as well. Some of these women, given the treatment they receive as victims in society, were too shamed and embarrassed to come forward and report what had occurred to them.

Even before he was convicted on rape charges he had a conviction for indecent exposure. He is known to have been a regular sex tourist in Thailand. Where was his wife's awareness? Where were the public safety authorities in all of this? This monster was given the freedom to roam wherever he wished, to attack the defenceless and the vulnerable, an extraordinary predator.

His pathetic excuse that he was an unwanted, unloved and abused child which led to his life-long hatred and violent obsession with humiliating and violating women presents as yet another exploitative ploy, this time for public sympathy. Sympathy? There are times when the world would simply be far better off without the living presence of such a hideously living offence against decency and humanity.

Yet it is entirely possible, since the man is such a survivor, feeding off the misery of those upon whom he preys, that he may yet see freedom. Some truly arcane laws may aid and abet his future release, despite a life sentence. He will be placed in a psychiatric unit "for people with an abnormality of the mind", as stated by Judge Andrea Humer.

And if, at some future date, within that period construing a 'life sentence' he may be deemed by mental health specialists to have been rehabilitated, he could be transferred to a normal prison, and from there be eligible for parole, after a mandatory minimum of 15 years' imprisonment.

Unless some noble creature incarcerated alongside him doesn't put us out of the misery he has imposed on us, first.

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posted by Pieface @ Friday, March 20, 2009

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