Austrian suspect´s lawyer preparing insanity defense

The lawyer for the Austrian man who allegedly imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and fathered seven children with her is preparing an insanity defense.

Attorney Rudolf Mayer says he believes 73-year-old suspect Josef Fritzl has a mental disorder. Mayer says anyone with that kind of psychological illness "didn´t choose" to do what police allege he did.

Mayer said Sunday that if experts determine Fritzl is certifiably insane, and he is convicted, he would be confined to a psychiatric institution rather than a prison.

Investigators say Fritzl confessed last week that he held his daughter captive in a windowless cell beneath his home, fathered seven children with her, and tossed the body of one who died in infancy into a furnace.