Austrian rapist Josef Fritzl has said he wants to “roam free on the wild Highlands of Scotland” if he is released from prison.
Fritzl was jailed for life in 2009 after he admitted to forcing his daughter to be his sex slave for 24 years.
The 88-year-old’s legal team successfully applied to move Fritzl out of a high-security unit for mentally disturbed patients to a regular prison on January 25.
But that decision was subsequently blocked with a new trial date set for April, according to Fritzl’s lawyer Astrid Wagner.
Speaking with The Press & Journal, Ms Wagner said: “He will, to my mind, he will get out of prison. But it will take time.
“It is also a fight against the time, because Mr Fritzl is very old already. He wants to get to at least 100 years.
“If he gets to 100 years, he will get out living, not dead.”
Josef Fritzl wants to see ‘spectacular Highlands scenery’
According to reports in The Scottish Sun, Fritzl has said that if does get out, he wants to move to the Highlands because of its “spectacular scenery”.
He got the idea after watching a documentary about Shakespeare in his high-security prison.
He said: “I was filled with this wonderful, uplifting feeling, this sense of inspiration for this fantastic culture.
“And it was then I knew that when I get released, it is not Austria I want to stay, rather I want to emigrate to the UK.
“Above all I want to roam free on the wild Highlands of Scotland.”
Fritzl kept daughter imprisoned as sex slave for 24 years
Fritzl locked his daughter Elisabeth in the cellar of their family home in Amstetten in 1984. She was 18 years old.
For the next 24 years she was imprisoned there as his sex slave.
Fritzl fathered seven children with her during that period.
Elisabeth was discovered in 2008 after one of the children was taken to hospital.
Currently, Fritzl is being held in a high-security unit for mentally disturbed patients in Stein prison in Krems, north-east Austria, not far from his former home in Amstetten.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We will by law refuse any application to enter the UK where the applicant has been convicted of a criminal offence and received a custodial sentence of 12 months or more.”
Home Secretary James Cleverly added: “This monster is never coming to our country.
“Any attempt to travel to the UK will be refused – as it would be for anyone convicted of serious sex offences like this.”
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