AN AUSTRIAN JUDGE has ruled that the house in which Josef Fritzl imprisoned and repeatedly raped his daughter for 24 years should be demolished.

Judge Markus Sonnleitner, who is dealing with Fritzl’s bankruptcy case in the Austrian courts, told Vienna’s Kurier newspaper that he didn’t believe the house could ever find a buyer, and that it should therefore be torn to the ground.

“The house should be knocked down. There is much interest in it completely disappearing,” the judge said.

Local authorities were to begin examining the various options of how to proceed with the destruction of the property, though the basement should be immediately demolished.

The 75-year-old was jailed for life least year after being found guilty of having kept his daughter falsely imprisoned in a basement ‘dungeon’, as well as having repeatedly raped her and the murder one of the seven children she had borne by him. Three of the seven children had been sequestered in the downstairs basement for the entirety of their lifetimes – the eldest being 19 years old.

The decision to destroy the property comes as controversy over a decision to allow him planning permission for others still rages in Austria.

The Sun reports that the decision comes amid controversy over a separate decision to allow Frizl planning permission for a building project, involving houses, an office block and an underground car park.

The application was lodged two years before Fritzl was arrested, but was only approved last week.