"House of horrors" Fritzl reportedly has rape conviction 02/05/2008 00:00

The rape conviction had been erased from Fritzl's police records as it occurred over 40 years ago, according to the prosecutor's office in St Polten, state capital of Lower Austria.

Vienna -- Josef Fritzl, the 73-year- old at the center of the "house of horrors" case, was convicted of raping a 24-year-old woman in 1967, it emerged Friday.

Also in 1967, he attempted to drag a 21-year-old into the forest to rape her, a Lenz newspaper reported.

According to the reports, police, who have been examining court files since Wednesday, have also discovered that Fritzl was reported to the police for indecent exposure.

The rape conviction had been erased from Fritzl's police records as it occurred over 40 years ago, according to the prosecutor's office in St Polten, state capital of Lower Austria.

A sister of Fritzl's 68-year-old wife Rosemarie claimed Thursday that Fritzl had a conviction for rape from 40 years ago.

According to Austrian newspaper reports Friday, former lodgers at Fritzl's house said they heard noises coming from the cellar, but did not think anything of it.

Meanwhile, the crime scene in the small town of Amstetten in eastern Austria was attracting people curious to see where the grisliest crime in modern Austrian history had taken place.

People were travelling from as far as Germany to see the "house of horrors", the reports said.

"The motivation behind these visits is incomprehensible," Amstetten's deputy mayor Ursula Puchebner told the Austrian Press Agency, APA.

The clinic where the family was being treated at Amstetten-Maur was also being besieged by foreign reporters and photographers.

The clinic management had to cordon off the building and employ security to prevent photographers from gaining access to the family.

Lower Austrian police chief, Franz Polzer, said Friday that Fritzl had secured the cellar with two steel doors. Police had previously thought that Fritzl had accessed his dungeon via a single electronically locked 300-kilo steel door.

Fritzl has been reportedly refusing to answer further questions as police try to work out exactly what went on during the 24 years he admits holding his daughter prisoner along with three of seven children he had with her.

DPA