AUSTRIAN FRITZL 'TO PLEAD QUILTY'!

Police say Mr Fritzl has admitted imprisoning and raping his daughter

Josef Fritzl, the Austrian accused of sexually abusing his own daughter over 24 years, will plead guilty to most of the charges he faces, his lawyer says.

Rudolf Mayer said his client would admit to deprivation of liberty, rape, incest and coercion - and expects to spend the rest of his life in jail.

But he said Mr Fritzl would deny the charge that he killed one of the seven children he fathered with his daughter.

The 73-year-old is due to go on trial on 16 March.

He faces a life in jail if he is convicted of all the charges.

Investigators say Mr Fritzl has already confessed to raping his daughter Elisabeth - fathering seven children by her while she was imprisoned in the cellar of the family home.

But he denies murdering one of those children, who died shortly after birth and whose body he incinerated.

Mr Mayer told the Austrian news agency APA his client was a deeply disturbed character.

But, referring to newspaper headlines, he denied Mr Fritzl was a "sex monster" and said he loved his daughter Elisabeth "in his own way".

Of the six surviving children Mr Fritzl had with Elisabeth, three were raised in the family home.

The others were confined to the cellar for their whole lives, not seeing the light of day until they were discovered and released by police in April 2008.

The case first came to light after 19-year-old Kerstin, one of the children fathered by Mr Fritzl and kept underground, became seriously ill and was taken to hospital.

A psychiatrist's report last autumn judged that he was mentally fit to stand trial.
BBC NEWS REPORT.