Fritzl to go on trial

Joseph Fritzl will go on trial today facing charges of murder, rape, incest, coercion, false imprisonment and enslavement.

The 73-year-old Austrian, who fathered seven children with his own daughter, Elisabeth, has confessed to keeping her in a windowless dungeon beneath the family home for 24 years, where he raped her repeatedly.

His lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, has said his client will plead guilty to most of the charges but not murder.

Prosecutors allege a child who died in infancy in 1996 might have survived if taken to a doctor.

The court, in St Poelten, west of Vienna, will hear evidence that Fritzl refused to take action when the boy developed severe breathing problems and turned blue.

Fritzl’s daughter said his reponse was: “Whatever happens, happens.”

Legal experts have said the case for murder will be complicated by the absence of forensic evidence.

Fritzl allegedly told police he burned the child’s body in a furnace after he died.

DNA tests have confirmed Fritzl fathered all six of his daughter’s surviving children, according to the authorities.

In Austria murder carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Enslavement, which Mr Mayer also described as “questionable”, carries up to 20 years, and rape up to 15.

The conviction with the highest penalty will determine the length of the sentence.

According to his lawyer, Fritzl expects to spend the rest of his life in captivity.

But he could serve his sentence in a special psychiatric facility because of what prosecutors call his “high degree of emotional and intellectual abnormality”.

His prison guards in St Poelten, where he has been held since he was arrested in April, have described him as quiet, polite and inconspicuous.

Mr Mayer has sought to play down allegations his client is a “sex monster” and has even said he loved his daughter “in his own way”.

More than 150 journalists are expected to converge on the courthouse for the trial, which is scheduled to last just five days.

An eight-member jury is expected to deliver its verdict on March 20.

Court spokesman Franz Cutka said none of Fritzl’s victims or family members will be present during the mainly closed-door proceedings.

Elisabeth, now in her early 40s, was 18 years old when she was first confined to the cellar in 1984.

Three of her children grew up underground while there others were taken upstairs.

Fritzl’s wife, Rosemarie, said she believed Elisabeth – who her husband told her had joined a cult – had abandoned the babies at the front door.

He was finally discovered when 19-year-old Kerstin fell ill and Fritzl agreed to bring her upstairs so she could go to hospital.

When doctors made a television appeal for her mother to come forward to provide information about the girl’s medical history, Fritzl accompanied Elisabeth to the hospital.