Q+A: Austria's Josef Fritzl on trial

ST POELTEN, Austria (Reuters) - Josef Fritzl, who fathered seven children with a daughter he locked in a cellar for 24 years, pleaded guilty to all charges on Wednesday including enslavement and murder, reversing earlier denials.

The 73-year-old's actions came to light last April after one of three captive children, a 19-year-old girl, became seriously ill and was taken to hospital.

The three children had been locked up since birth with their mother in a network of underground cells, in parts only 1.70 meters (5 feet 6 inches) high. Police said they had never seen sunlight or received any formal education.

WHAT WERE THE CHARGES? The gravest was the murder of a child, a male twin, who died shortly after being born in the cellar in 1996. Prosecutors said Fritzl had committed murder through neglect by failing to get help for the baby, whose body he later incinerated.

Fritzl also has admitted rape, coercion and enslavement of his daughter Elisabeth, now in her 40s, and incest, and with depriving her and three of her children of liberty.

WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM SENTENCE?

Life imprisonment. Sentences under Austrian law are not cumulative, so Fritzl will serve only the longest of the sentences handed down.

For murder, he faces 10-15 years or life behind bars. Enslavement, a charge recently introduced into Austrian law to cover human trafficking, carries a maximum sentence of 10-20 years, rape 5-15 years, deprivation of liberty 1-10 years, coercion six months to 5 years and incest up to one year.

There is a possibility of parole after 15 years for a life sentence, and after half the time period of any other sentence.

Austrian law can prevent convicts walking free after a sentence if it is feared they could return to crime.

HOW DID FRITZL PLEAD?

He pleaded innocent to murder and enslavement, guilty to reduced counts of rape and coercion, and guilty to incest and deprivation of liberty when the trial began on Monday. Austrian law differentiates between the severity of rapes depending on the degree of violence and the consequences for the victim.

But he changed his pleas to fully guilty on all charges after watching 11 hours of videotaped testimony by Elisabeth.

Defense lawyer Rudolf Mayer said he had nothing to do with the plea change and was surprised by it, but that Fritzl might have been moved by his daughter's detailed description of her almost quarter-century-long ordeal.

Even before Fritzl's change of mind, he expected to spend the rest of his life in jail, Mayer said. He noted that even if his client outlives a prison sentence, he is still likely to remain in a psychiatric institution.

A psychiatric assessment in October found that he had a severe personality disorder, although he was aware of his actions during the 24-year period, and so fit for trial.

IS THE TRIAL PUBLIC?

The opening of the trial and Wednesday morning's session were held in public while Tuesday's proceeding featuring Elisabeth's testimony was closed to shield her identity. She and her children now live in a secret location under new identities.

Fritzl is in custody in St Poelten, a provincial capital close to Vienna where the trial was taking place.

(Additional reporting by Alexandra Zawadil; editing by Andrew Roche)