Josef Fritzl, the Austrian engineer who kept his daughter locked in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children by her, has been charged with murder and slavery, according to a charge sheet published yesterday.

Fritzl, 73, is accused of treating his daughter, Elisabeth, 42, as a sex slave, keeping her locked in a nuclear shelter beneath his house in the town of Amstetten, where he repeatedly raped her.

He is also charged with rape, incest and false imprisonment. One of the incest children, a baby boy called Michael, died three days after his birth in 1996. The murder charge was brought, prosecutors said, because Fritzl did not seek medical help for the child, who had severe respiratory problems.

“As a father, he killed the newborn by purposely refusing to provide the necessary help of third persons despite recognising the life-threatening condition of the baby, thus causing the child to die,” the charges read.

Gerhard Sedlacek, the prosecution spokesman, told The Times that a charge of murder rather than manslaughter was brought in recognition of Fritzl’s criminal responsibilityas the child’s father. If found guilty of murder, Fritzl could face life in prison. The slavery charge carries a sentence of up to 20 years, according to a paragraph of the penal code that has never before been applied in an Austrian court.

The charge sheet accuses Fritzl of “putting his daughter Elisabeth Fritzl in a slave-like position by kidnapping and locking her up in the cellar . . . [and] demanding her sexual services and disposing of her as if she was his property”. Fritzl would play porn films to his daughter in the bunker and then force her to re-enact the scenes, prosecutors allege.

The retired property developer was also charged with multiple rapes, incarceration, coercion and incest. In Austria only the highest sentence is imposed in the case of multiple convictions.

The charge sheet detailed the births of the seven children in the dank cellar, all of which took place without any medical assistance or sterile equipment. According to prosecutors, Elisabeth persuaded her father to bring her a book on giving birth as soon as she noticed the first symptoms of pregnancy.

“She gave birth without any medical attention, in the worst of circumstances, only having a scissor, a blanket to wrap the newborn in, and nappies,” the charges read.

Prosecutors say that Fritzl had a dinner with his captive family when his daughter went into labour and witnessed the birth of Michael on April 28, 1996. He noticed that the baby had turned blue and had breathing difficulties.

“But instead of attaining appropriate medical care, the accused gave up on any life-saving measures and only said: ‘Whatever will be, will be’,” the charges read.

The infant died on May 1, 1996. Fritzl burned Michael’s body in an incinerator, and scattered the ashes in the garden of his house in Amstetten.

Fritzl selected three of the children born in the cellar — now aged 12 to 15 — to live with him and his wife, Rosemarie, 69, in the upstairs apartment, where they led a normal life and did well at school. Meanwhile their three siblings, aged 5 to 19, languished in the dank cellar with their mother. They did not see the light of day until they were freed by police on April 26 this year.

Prosecutors have demanded that Fritzl should be committed to a special institution for the criminally insane after a forensic psychiatrist concluded that, although sane, he suffered from a severe personality disorder.

Times Recommends

• Swine flu vaccine for all as drug rushed through
• Artificial sperm and the race to build a baby
• BBC jets out stars to tout for prizes