Josef Fritzl, dubbed "das Inzest Monster" by the local media, will face charges of murder, incest, unlawful imprisonment and enslavement.

The 73-year-old kept his daughter Elisabeth locked in a purpose-built cellar and repeatedly raped and abused her.

He fathered seven children by her and burnt the body of one infant who died shortly after birth.

Fritzl convinced his wife Rosemarie that Elisabeth had run away to join a cult and the three babies he brought upstairs were her deserted children.

Three further children remained imprisoned with their mother in the sound-proof dungeon.

The horrific crimes shocked the small town of Amstetten and the country as a whole.

Family, friends and neighbours claimed to know nothing about what was happening on their doorstep but were accused by some commentators of "turning a blind eye".

Fritzl's trial will take place 50 miles away in the lower Austrian capital Sankt Poelten where he is currently being held in prison.

It is expected to last for five days, during which jurors will watch video testimony from Elisabeth Fritzl.

She will reportedly describe how she defended herself against rape by "kicking and screaming" and had to kill "large rats" that found their way into her underground prison.

Sankt Poelten is preparing for a huge level of interest from the international media.

Dr Frank Cutka told Sky News almost 200 journalists from all over the world had applied to get into the courtroom.

Those that have been accredited will see only the start and end of the trial. The rest will be held in private.

Dr Cutka defended the decision not to allow a full open case. "We need to keep the public away to protect the victims," he said.

"We had to balance the public interest in the case against their needs.

"There are details which we do not want to be made public and the jury will face imprisonment if they reveal what is said."

The eight jurors will be kept under police guard during the trial which is expected to last until Friday. Four further jurors will remain on standby in a secret location.

Elisabeth Fritzl and her family have returned to hospital where they will be protected from media intrusion until the case is closed.

Sky News Online will have the latest developments, analysis and background throughout the week.

ST. POELTEN, Austria (CNN) -- A verdict in the case of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man accused of keeping his daughter in a cellar for decades and fathering her seven children, could come as early as Thursday, a court official told reporters Monday.

As his trial began behind closed doors Monday Fritzl pleaded guilty to incest and other charges, but denied charges of murder and enslavement -- the most serious charges against him.

He pleaded "Partly guilty" to multiple charges of rape, but did not elaborate. "Partly guilty" is a plea option in Austrian courts.

Franz Cutka, a spokesman for the Landesgericht St. Poelten court, said the "partly guilty" plea might mean that Fritzl contends he is not guilty of all the individual rape charges or that the violence used was not as severe as rape.

Cutka was not in court for the plea and does not speak for the defendant. Fritzl's attorney was not immediately available to explain what he meant.

Fritzl arrived at the courthouse in St. Poelten covering his face with a blue binder to shield himself from reporters, television cameras and photographers and escorted by a phalanx of police officers.

Fritzl faces six charges at a closed-door trial in St. Poelten, 45 miles (70 km) east of Amstetten, where Fritzl lived. Cameras were removed from the court

The trial is scheduled to last five days, but his attorney Rudolph Mayer said it could be shorter.

Fritzl was charged in November with incest and the repeated rape of his daughter, Elisabeth, over a 24-year period.

But he was also charged with the murder of one of the children he fathered with her, an infant who died soon after birth. State Prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said Michael Fritzl died from lack of medical care.

In an opening statement, prosecuting attorney Christiane Burkheiser handed damp-smelling items from the cellar where Elisabeth and her children had lived to jurors to give them an idea of the conditions in which they were allegedly locked up.

In all, Fritzl is charged with: murder, involvement in slave trade (slavery), rape, incest, assault and deprivation of liberty, Sedlacek's office said. He could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of murder. Mayer said Sunday that Fritzl expected to spend the rest of his life in prison.

"This man obviously led a double life for 24 years. He had a wife and had seven kids with her. And then he had another family with his daughter, fathered another seven children with her," said Franz Polzer, a police officer in Amstetten, the town where Fritzl lived, at the time of his arrest.

The case first came to light in April 2008 when Elisabeth's daughter, Kerstin, became seriously ill with convulsions.

Elisabeth persuaded her father to allow Kerstin, then 19, to be taken to a hospital for treatment.

Hospital staff became suspicious of the case and alerted police, who discovered the family members in the cellar.

Fritzl confessed to police that he raped his daughter, kept her and their children in captivity and burned the body of the dead infant in an oven in the house. Elisabeth told police the infant was one of twins who died a few days after birth.

When Elisabeth gained her freedom, she told police her father began sexually abusing her at age 11. On August 8, 1984, she told police, her father enticed her into the basement, where he drugged her, put her in handcuffs and locked her in a room.

Fritzl explained Elisabeth's disappearance in 1984 by saying the girl, who was then 18, had run away from home. He backed up the story with letters he forced Elisabeth to write.

Elisabeth Fritzl and all but three of her children lived in the specially designed cellar beneath her father's home in Amstetten, Austria, west of Vienna. The other three children lived upstairs with Fritzl and his wife; Fritzl had left them on his own doorstep, pretending the missing Elisabeth had dropped them off.

Under Austrian law, if Fritzl is convicted on several offenses, he will be given the sentence linked to the worst crime. The charges he faces are:

• Murder: The infant who died in 1996 died from a lack of medical care, the state prosecutor said. The charge carries a sentence of life in prison.

• Involvement in slave trade: From 1984 until 2008, prosecutors allege, Fritzl held his daughter, Elisabeth, captive in a dungeon, abused her sexually and treated her as if she were his personal property -- in a situation similar to slavery. If he is convicted, the sentence could range from 10 to 20 years in prison.

• Rape: Between August 30, 1984, and June 30, 1989, Fritzl "regularly sexually abused Elisabeth," according to the prosecutor. The sentence could be from five to 15 years in prison.

• Incest: Parallel to the rape charge. It carries a sentence of up to one year.

• Withdrawal of liberty: Three of the children Fritzl had with Elisabeth were illegally held captive in a dungeon with no daylight or fresh air, according to prosecutors. That charge carries a sentence of one to 10 years.

• Assault: Between August 28, 1984, and April 26, 2006, Fritzl repeatedly threatened Elisabeth and their three children with gas and booby traps as warnings in case they tried to escape, authorities allege. The sentence would range from six months to five years.

It looks like he may have killed before.

Janet

JOSEF Fritzl is likely to spend the rest of his life locked up in a psychiatric unit - but the full extent of his crimes may be yet to surface.

The depraved father, convicted yesterday after imprisoning his daughter, Elisabeth, for 24 years, is being investigated over at least four unsolved murders and disappearances.

Even as he was led away to serve at least 15 years in prison, police were re-examining missing person and unsolved murder cases over the past four decades.

One is the 1986 murder of Martina Posch, 17, who was raped, strangled and dumped in a lake a short distance from where Fritzl and wife Rosemarie ran a guesthouse.

"What really stands out is that Martina looks similar to Fritzl's daughter. The likeness is incredible," police chief Alois Lissl said.

Other cases include the shotgun murder of Anna Neumayer, 17, near Fritzl's workplace in 1966 and the disappearance of Julia Kuehrer, 16, near his home in 2006.

The investigation also includes sex worker Gabriele Superkova, 20, was murdered and dumped in a lake near where Fritzl was holidaying in 2007.

Meanwhile, there is ongoing disbelief that Fritzl's wife, Rosemarie, knew nothing of the cellar although police insist she is an innocent party.

"What woman would stay silent if she knew her husband had seven children with his daughter and was holding her prisoner in the cellar?," police have said.

Rosemarie, like all of Elisabeth's siblings, refused to testify at Fritzl's trial.

A jury took only hours to find the 73-year-old guilty of rape, incest, deprivation of liberty, enslavement and murder by neglect over the death of his new-born son Michael in 1996.

Impassive, he accepted the verdict and said he would not be launching an appeal, bringing a swift end to a case that has shocked the world.

His life sentence means he cannot be freed for at least 15 years. He would then have to prove he no longer posed a danger to the public before being released.

Fritzl moved to long-term prison

Josef Fritzl, the Austrian who raped and imprisoned his daughter for years, has been moved to a long-term prison to serve his life sentence, officials say.

He was transferred from a Vienna prison to the Stein facility in Krems, some 50km (30 miles) west of the capital.

He will be held in a special wing for inmates found to be mentally abnormal, but still responsible for their crimes.

Fritzl, 74, fathered seven children with his daughter while she was locked in a cellar for 24 years.

One child died of neglect.

In March, Fritzl was found guilty of all charges against him, including rape, incest, enslavement and murder, and was sentenced to life in prison.

The Stein facility – which can house more than 800 inmates – offers Fritzl the best protection against potential attacks by other inmates, and also has its own hospital ward, officials said.

Fritzl had wanted to be moved to Garsten prison, closer to his home town of Amstetten, but his family said they did not want him nearby, AFP news agency reported.

In 1984, Fritzl lured his then 18-year-old daughter into the basement of the family home, and raped her repeatedly in the years that followed.

The case only came to light in April 2008, when she convinced him to take a severely ill daughter, whom Fritzl had fathered with her, to hospital.