Austrian incest victim's lawyer considers suing over books on case

Vienna  - The lawyer for an Austrian woman who was held captive and repeatedly raped by her father for 24 years, on Thursday said his client was considering going to court to prevent the publication of books about the headline-grabbing case.

Earlier this week, Nigel Cawthorne's book about the case of Christine Fritzl, her father Josef Fritzl and the six children she bore him, House of Horrors - The horrific true story of the father from hell, went on sale in Britain, published by John Blake.

Christoph Herbst, the victims' lawyer, said he would sue if his client's privacy was violated by this and forthcoming books, the Austrian Press Agency APA reported Thursday.

Herbst said the Fritzl family was "shocked" by the portrayal of their case in publications.

Another book, Monster - A rapist father, a captive daughter, a dungeon, written by Allan Hall is due for release in November. Hall conducted anonymous interviews with care workers tending to Fritzl and her children after they were freed.

In April, the 42-year-old woman and three of her children were freed from a dungeon under the family home in Amstetten, where Josef Fritzl had kept her for more than two decades.

Her other three children were being raised by Fritzl and his wife in the house. The 73-year-old Fritzl had pretended his daughter was a runaway who had dropped three of her babies at his doorstep over several years.

Josef Fritzl is expected to stand trial later in the year, not only for rape and imprisonment, but possibly also for murder, as a seventh child born in the dungeon died shortly after birth. (dpa)

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