Cellar monster Josef Fritzl faces 3,000 rape charges in December trial

Fritzl, 74, who secretly fathered seven children with Elisabeth, 42 - forcing three to live in the basement prison – could be in court by December, it emerged today.

Austrian prosecutors have announced that his three-day trial would be heard in private apart from opening formalities and sentencing.

Abuse: Josef Fritzl admitted sleeping with Elisabeth up to three times a week

They expect to officially file formal charges by the end of October.

But court officials admit it might be impossible to find enough jurors who have not already made up their minds about Fritzl’s guilt.

Under Austrian law there must be eight jurors and two substitutes.

‘We are a small country. There can’t be 10 people out there who don’t already have strong opinions about this man and what he’s done,’ one legal source told Austrian newspaper Kurier.

Last week it emerged that the six surviving children, who were born underneath the Fritzl family home in Amstetten, will not be forced to testify.

Wife Rosemarie, 69, will also be spared giving evidence.

Court boss Kurt Leitzenberger said: ‘They will not give statements. This decision is final.

‘Their statements might have helped us but most of it was clear from the beginning.’

The family’s lawyers warned this week they were too traumatised to give evidence.

Prosecutors insist statements from Fritzl’s daughter Elisabeth will ‘provide enough evidence’.

But they had hoped her daughter Kerstin, 19, would help convict Fritzl 74, for murder over the death of Elisabeth’s newborn.

Prosecutors believe the baby may have been alive he tossed it into an incinerator in the dungeon he built at the family home in Amstetten.

Elisabeth, who claims she was abused since age 11, was taken prisoner after she ran away from home when aged 18.

Horrific: Fritzl forced Elisabeth and her three children in this cramped cellar

Over the course of the following 24 years, Fritzl apparently visited her in the hidden cellar on average once every three days to bring food and other supplies.

During that time he has also admitted raping her.

Three children, Lisa, 16, Monika, 14, and Alexander, 12 - a twin of the baby who died - were removed from the cellar as infants to live with Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie.

They adopted Lisa and became Monika’s and Alexander’s foster carers, with the knowledge of local social services.

Officials said that Fritzl ‘very plausibly’ explained how three of his infant grandchildren had appeared on his doorstep.

The family received regular visits from social workers, who did not hear complaints or notice anything to arouse their suspicions.

Following the birth of the fourth child in 1994, Fritzl enlarged the prison for Elisabeth and her children, making the cellar around a third bigger.

The captives had a television, radio, and video cassette player and food could be stored in a refrigerator and cooked or heated on hot plates.

Elisabeth taught the children to read and write, although it has been reported that they have only basic communication ability.

Fritzl told Elisabeth and the three children - Kerstin, Stefan, 18, and five-year-old Felix -who remained in the cellar that they would be gassed if they tried to escape.

Investigators have concluded that the threat was bogus and was primarily designed to frighten the captives as no actual gas pipes were found leading into the basement.

Fritzl stated after his arrest, that it was sufficient to tell them not to meddle with the cellar door or otherwise they would receive an electrical shock and die.

According to his sister-in-law Christine, Fritzl would go into the basement every morning at 9 am, apparently to draw plans for machines, which he sold to firms.

Often he stayed down there for the night — his wife was not even allowed to bring him coffee.

A tenant, who rented a ground floor room in the Fritzl house for 12 years, said he heard noises coming from the basement but Fritzl passed it off as noise emanating from the gas heating system.