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Press and public were present earlier in the day to hear Christiane Burkheiser, for the prosecution, allege that Mr Fritzl did not speak a single word to Elisabeth for the first few years of her captivity in the basement.

The chief prosecutor claimed that as time went on he raped her repeatedly in full view of the children and that he punished her by shutting off electricity to the dungeon.

"[The defendant] showed no sign of regret or any consciousness of wrongdoing," she said.

"Josef Fritzl treated his daughter as his property, he made her completely dependent. He decided what kind of food was brought into the dungeon. He decided when food was brought. And food was also often scarce."

Ms Burkheiser made a mark on the entrance door to the court room at 1m 74cm to illustrate the height of the ceiling at the highest point of the dungeon, and pointed to it with a laser pointer.

"They had to crawl on their knees in order to get around the dungeon," she told the court.

"It was damp and mouldy. The dampness crept into their backs and into their bones."

She went towards the eight jurors with a box of musty objects and scraps of cloth, from the cellar. "Smell these things," she urged the jury, who flinched back in their seats.

Ms Burkheiser, who is 32 and conducting her first major case since being made chief prosecutor, said that he had treated his daughter as a toy - an allegation linked to the enslavement charge, which Fritzl denies.

She is pressing for life imprisonment in an institution for the criminally insane.

Rudolf Mayer, defending, appealed to the jury to be objective and not swayed by emotions. He insisted Fritzl was "not a monster" and said his client even brought a Christmas tree down to his captives.

"If you just want to have sex, you don’t have children," Mr Mayer said. "As a monster, I’d kill all of them downstairs."

Mr Fritzl himself told the three judges and eight jurors that, at the age of 12, he had made it clear to his own mother that he would not tolerate being beaten any longer and would defend himself.

"From that point on, I was Satan personified for her," he said. She never showed him any affection and his father appeared only "rarely and sporadically", he said.

His relationship with his mother was never close, even though they shared the same house until her death in 1980.

Fritzl attributed his mother’s coldness to her own childhood. "Her life wasn’t the best, either," he said. "She grew up on a farm and had to work from the age of eight."

Prompted by the judge several times, he pleaded "partially" guilty to rape. Austrian law differentiates between the severity of rapes and levels of coercion, and takes into account the degree of violence used and the consequences for the victim.

Fritzl’s lawyer will clarify which part of the rape charges he rejects during the closed-door part of the trial this week, said Mr Cutka. In theory, Fritzl could plead guilty to the rape charge in general but dispute the prosecution’s claims as to the degree of violence he used.

None of Fritzl's alleged victims was present in court for the opening of the trial. They are spending the week in a psychiatric clinic to escape the publicity surrounding the trial.

The trial ranks as one of the most extraordinary in modern Austrian history, overshadowing even the case of Natasha Kampusch, the schoolgirl who was held for more than eight years in an underground dungeon in a dormitory suburb of Vienna.

The reporters and the public are expected to remain excluded for the duration of the trial. They will be readmitted for the verdict, which is expected by Friday.

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