Austria has disposed of its monster, sending Josef Fritzl behind high walls for the rest of his life. It seems like closure for a country that has worried more about its tarnished image than about the alarming deficiencies that the case has exposed in society, in its welfare and judicial systems, even in its attitude to manhood.

Fritzl’s lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, pleaded in his final statement to the court for his client not to be considered a monster, rather a disturbed man who committed ghastly criminal acts. But the state prosecution made clear that Fritzl was considered an abomination. That is how Austria wants to see this man: as a once-in-a-century freak, a devilish criminal who has no bearing on the rest of the country.

Questions are being raised about how Rosemarie Fritzl could have been ignorant of her husband’s double life, but the broader issue is why the social welfare network, once the pride of Austria, let down Elisabeth Fritzl so completely. Fritzl’s 1967 rape conviction had been wiped from the record and was therefore not deemed relevant to the authorities that allowed him to adopt one of Elisabeth’s children and foster two others.

There was no serious investigation into the suitability of the Fritzls to become parents again. Fritzl was a man, it seems, of good standing. There were 21 reported visits to the family home from social workers and they expressed their satisfaction with the up-bringing of the three upstairs children.

Brutal double-life of Josef Fritzl emerges

How the horrifying news spread from a sleepy town in Austria throughout the rest of the world

Multimedia

• Video: Fritzl in court

• Pictures: Josef Fritzl trial

BACKGROUND

• The face in court that finally shamed Fritzl

• Fritzl incest children in 'astonishing' reunion

• Josef Fritzl is the limit, the death of hope

• Elisabeth Fritzl tells of father's cruelty

• Great evil took place in that cellar

Related Links

• Elizabeth Fritzl: unbroken despite the horror

• Children face weekly visits to the psychotherapist

• Austria must examine itself

“Elisabeth ran away from that house as a girl. Police searched for her, brought her back and delivered her into the violent embrace of her father,” said Hedwig Woelfl, the director of a child protection centre.

Neither were questions asked about Fritzl’s plans to extend his underground bunker. In the rooms that he rented out there were three mysterious fires. These too were not investigated – even for the possibility of faulty wiring. Yet the supply of electricity was central to Fritzel’s secret. Tenants upstairs had complained about the huge electricity bills – they were paying for the washing machine and lighting in the dungeon.

Even now, there are no plans to investigate Mrs Fritzl – she has not even been formally questioned by police.This is the second big case of incarceration in Austria, the kidnap of Natascha Kampusch having already shocked the world, yet no law has been proposed, no sex offender’s list, no streamlining of the police forces that missed so many clues.

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