Fritzl unmasked: the face of a monster

Fritzl, 73, had spent the last two days hiding his face behind a blue ring binder. Flanked by officers, he had walked in and out of court and taken his seat still shielded by the file.

He maintained his bizarre cover-up whenever he thought cameramen were in the Austrian court where he is on trial for imprisoning his daughter in underground chambers and raping her for 24 years, fathering seven children. But a photographer caught him unawares as he was being led from Court 119 during a break in proceedings.

Fritzl's icy glare betrays the anger he felt. One reporter said: "He looked stunned and angry. In fact he was seething. You could tell this was a guy who would have lashed out had he not be surrounded by six armed police guards." Back in the courtroom in St Pölten after the brief adjournment, he returned to burying his face in his file.

The jury has been hearing the voice of his daughter Elisabeth, now 42, giving her harrowing evidence.

The searing evidence was admitted on videotape, made after her release last year, after prosecutors struck a deal to spare her from having to confront him again.

Elisabeth told how her father, a sex-obsessed convicted rapist, locked her up when she was 18 and fathered her seven children, three of whom lived with her in the cramped underground chambers he had built.

Jurors watched as the tape played on monitors in room 119 of the court. A total of 13 hours of her testimony will be heard.

Elisabeth spoke about her father's utter domination of her. She told how he would come down to the cellar beneath the family home in Amstetten clutching boxfuls of pornographic videos which he would play, forcing her to re-enact the scenes in rape sessions that went on for hours.

She also told how she suffered grave injuries from sex toys. "He shut (Elisabeth) away in the cellar and made her totally dependent on him, forcing her into sexual acts and treating her as if she was his own property," his charge sheet read.

The testimony also includes details of how she gave birth in the dark, frightened and alone.

During the course of the trial scheduled to last all week the jurors will hear how Fritzl was the supreme arbiter of life and death in the cellar.

He burned the body of one of the babies Elisabeth gave birth to in 1996 after the child died three days after he was born.

This is the most serious charge that Fritzl faces, murder, because he failed to get medical help for the baby. He pleads not guilty to this charge and also one of slavery. So far he has admitted two charges, one of incest and one of imprisonment.

He has entered a plea of "partially guilty" of rape and "massive coercion" - the latter relating to the grisly threats he levelled against his cellar family that they would be killed if ever they tried to leave the booby-trapped cellar.

Elisabeth's children Kerstin, 20, Stefan, 19, and six-year-old Felix remained underground until their release. Lisa, 18, Monika, 16, and Alexander, 13, were taken to live upstairs in the house because Fritzl feared he was running out of space in the dungeon.

He told his wife they had been dumped on the doorstep by the "missing" Elisabeth who had joined a cult. Alexander's twin brother Michael died days after being born after developing breathing difficulties.

Jurors have been told they will only have to listen to the evidence given by Elisabeth for two hours a day because it is so disturbing.

Neither Elisabeth nor any of her six children will be at the trial this week. Also absent is Fritzl's wife Rosemarie who now lives alone and has started divorce proceedings.

Jurors have been promised psychiatric counselling if they cannot bear to listen to Elisabeth's torment. There are four replacement jurors lined up in case any member of the panel is forced to drop out.