The prosecution has demanded the 'maximum' penalty - which is life in the case of murder - for the 73-year-old who has confessed to holding his daughter as a sex slave in a damp, underventilated cellar for 24 years, fathering seven children with her and letting one of the babies die shortly after birth.

'It was murder by neglect and that demands the maximum sentence,' chief prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser told jurors in her closing statement earlier.

Arguing his case, defence lawyer Rudolf Mayer said that Fritzl's psychological abnormalities should be regarded as attenuating circumstances in any sentence handed down at his trial in Austria.

'Attenuating circumstances must be taken into consideration,' Rudolf Mayer told jurors in his closing statement on the final day of the trial.

'My client was responsible for his actions, but his personality has psychological abnormalities. He didn't choose to be the way he is.'

Mr Mayer also argued that although Fritzl had now pleaded guilty to murdering one of the seven children he fathered with his daughter Elisabeth, the death should not be regarded as a murder.

'Regarding the charge of murder, I don't believe it was,' said Mr Mayer. -- AFP

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