Austrian prosecutors called today for Josef Fritzl to be jailed for life for locking up and raping his daughter in a cellar over a 24-year period, fathering seven children by her.
They demanded the maximum sentence during closing arguments in the trial of Fritzl, 73, who has pleaded guilty to incest, rape, enslavement and murder, by neglect, in the death of an infant son born underground.
A verdict was expected this afternoon with sentencing shortly afterward.
Fritzl reversed his plea and admitted guilt on all charges yesterday after being overcome watching daughter Elisabeth, now 42, describe her ordeal in an 11-hour video testimony.
He admitted enslaving Elisabeth in a purpose-built cellar under his house, and said he was guilty of murder for the death of one of their babies by failing to seek help for its breathing problems.
If found guilty of murder by the eight-person jury, the maximum sentence is life imprisonment, the minimum is 10 years.
LIGHTER SENTENCE AFTER CONFESSION?
Defence lawyer Rudolf Mayer, who said he had nothing to do with the surprise plea reversal, said Fritzl expected to spend the rest of his life incarcerated, even though under Austrian law a confession can lead to a reduced sentence.
The prosecution earlier asked that he be sent to a secure psychiatric hospital and the court could rule that he has to stay there indefinitely, regardless of his sentence.
His expression grim, Fritzl entered court today ringed by a dozen policemen. He was wearing the same rumpled grey suit with a blue shirt and tie.
Fritzl also altered his plea from "partial" to full guilt on the rape count. He had initially admitted incest but denied murder and enslavement, the two gravest charges, at Monday's outset of the trial in St Poelten, west of Vienna.
The children held captive had never seen daylight and had to watch Fritzl repeatedly rape their mother Elisabeth, according to the prosecution, who said he treated her like his property.
"The basic need was for power. It is about domination, about power, about control," psychiatrist Adelheid Kastner testified.
She told ORF state television later that Fritzl was a suicide risk because, after conceding full guilt for his daughter's tragedy, "his house of cards collapsed. He will find it hard to live with this new reality".
Fritzl's abuses came to light last April when he took the eldest child to hospital after she became seriously ill.
Elisabeth and her six children, aged 5 to 19 at their discovery, and three of whom were incarcerated from birth, are now living in an undisclosed location under new identities.
Three of the children were raised above ground by Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie after he told people that Elisabeth had abandoned them and joined a sect.