Dungeon dad's family may get new identities

London, May 24 : After going through 24 years of hell, the family members of Austrian incest dad Josef Fritzl are looking forward to the prospect of assuming new identities so that they may lead a normal life when they are released from hospital.

The 73-year-old monster's cellar family wants to make sure that the fiend is not able to trace them, even from his prison cell.

The push to give the family new identities comes after a series of violent incidents involving journalists breaching security at the hospital where they are being treated.

After a sharp intensification of the security measures at the psychiatric unit following attempts by the international paparazzi to get into the closed ward where the family are kept, lawyers for the Fritzl family and hospital authorities have said that they have effectively been 'imprisoned again'. Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, five of her six children and her mother Rosemarie, 68, have been receiving treatment at the Amstetten-Mauer hospital since April 27.

But the family's recovery has been jeopardized by increasingly desperate attempts by reporters and photographers to catch a glimpse of the tormented family.

The family's lawyer Christoph Herbst said that he had been 'bombarded' with financial offers from various international media for photographs and interviews with his clients, but rejected the possibility of any kind of public appearance within the next few months.

Herbst also said that the family was now considering assuming new identities in order to avoid the aggressive scrutiny of the international press.

"Miss Fritzl and her two children, Stefan and Felix, who had never before seen daylight are recovering remarkably well, but they are virtually imprisoned for the second time after their life long ordeal as they are not allowed to leave the hospital building due to many aggressive reporters and photographers," the Telegraph quoted Herbst, as saying.

"The children would like to go out in the open; they have never experienced rain in their lives nor have they felt fresh air. They're incredibly curious about everything around them and they would like to touch the trees and the plants in the hospital gardens. But they are unable to even leave the floor they are residing in, and that is an untenable situation.

"We are therefore looking into the possibility of asking the authorities to provide them with new identities, in order for them to be able to avoid pressure from the international media. We will definitely not be giving any interviews," he added.

ANI