A MONSTER CRACKS; After his lifetime of depravity, Fritzl comes face to face with the daughter he destroyed.. and finally says sorry.

Byline: JEREMY ARMSTRONG in Room 119, Courthouse, St Poelten, Austria

CELLAR monster Josef Fritzl finally confessed to murder yesterday after coming face to face with the daughter he made his sex prisoner for 24 years.

He sensationally admitted all charges, telling the judge: "I recognise my guilt."

On Tuesday daughter Elisabeth, 42, sat in the public gallery for more than an hour during her video recorded testimony.

And it was there Fritzl saw her for the first time since she tasted freedom. In an incredible show of strength she remained "grim faced and silent" during the horrific hearing which was closed to the public.

But the glimpse of the daughter he had abused from the age of 11 finally touched the monster and he told his psychiatrist: "I change my plea - I am guilty of everything they say."

The confession and apology he denied his daughter for 31 years took just seven minutes. With it, Fritzl, 73, resigned himself to the rest of his life behind bars - although probably in a secure unit rather than a jail.

He had already admitted incest, rape, sexual abuse and assault, false imprisonment, coercion and making threats.

But he denied enslavement and the murder of Michael - one of seven children he fathered with his daughter and which she gave birth to in the cellar.

Fritzl's lawyer Rudolf Mayer said Elisabeth's presence was the "straw that broke the camel's back".

He added: "My client was so changed, his mind, his behaviour, everything."

As he shuffled into court surrounded by 11 armed guards on day three of his trial, Fritzl took his place behind a table in front of judge Andrea Humer. Then he uttered the three words Elisabeth thought she would never hear him say.

"Ich bedaure es" - I regret it.

Judge Humer said: "I wanted to take you back to Elisabeth's testimony."

Fritzl: "Yes". Judge: "Do you a have anything to add?" Fritzl: "I recognise that I am guilty to all of the charges. I want to say sorry for what I have done. It is because of the video testimony of my daughter.

"I realised for the first time how cruel I had been. I never intended to kill the baby. I did not realise he was in such a bad way."

Fritzl was then asked why he did nothing to save the life of twin Michael born in 1996.

Hands clasped in front of him, he shrugged and said: "I did try to do something. I never realised it was not a normal birth." Asked if Elisabeth was left alone, as with the other births, he said: "I was just overseeing what was going on.

"We carried out the child together and we lay it on the bed.

"I did not realise it would not survive. But I should have realised."

In a day of high drama, psychiatrist Dr. Adelheid Kastner told of the loveless, deprived childhood which shaped the monster. She spent more than 20 hours in interviews with Fritzl to prepare a 30- page report for the jury.

She said his mother Maria left him in a bunker during 1943 air raids over Amstetten when he was eight. He was abandoned for hours on end. Forty one years later, Fritzl would do exactly the same with his own daughter.

The psychiatrist said Maria's total lack of love was decisive in his attitudes to women. Having children was a means to demonstrate his own power.

His grandparents' families were dysfunctional and his mother was born illegitimately.

She had a very dominant father so had a poor relationship with men.

Dr Kastner added: "She had Fritzl but she did not care about him. She was violent and always considered her son a burden."

As a young child he spent two days screaming with an acute condition but was only treated when a neighbour intervened.

The psychiatrist said: "During the war he was terrified during the air raids But she would leave him in the shelter alone for hours on end. He suffered an unbelievable fear. He developed a strategy for dealing with fear by pushing aside these feelings of fear into the cellar of his soul.

"He had a huge need for power and that is how it came out. He was a talented student and would go alone to read books for hours. He knew this was his way out of his terrible situation.

"At 12, there came a turning point. He knew education would give him confidence and mean his mother would not hit him again."

Dr Kastner said that rather than being suppressed, Fritzl decided he was going to be strong and compensate for the nonexistent relationship with his mother.

But to do that he needed to own someone completely and make that person belong to him. The psychiatrist went on: "His desire to exert power was something done to compensate for his years of being degraded."

Fritzl knew his "upstairs, downstairs" double life was wrong. But he coped by forgetting the cellar family as soon as he locked the electric dungeon doors.

Dr Kastner told the jury: "I asked him 'How could you lead this double life, one upstairs, one downstairs?' He said 'It is very simple. As soon as I left the cellar it was gone from my mind'."

When he went to sleep at night and woke in the morning he did feel some guilt.

But he continued to break "every law in the book" because of his extremely disturbed personality.

Dr Kastner went on: "His sexual urges are characterised by his desire to exert power and control. The more children he had, the more power he felt he had.

"He knew what he was doing was wrong but he did not know how to stop. He wanted to create a world for himself where everything was perfect. But he had these fantasies, these feelings he could not control.

"There was a voice inside his head saying 'I am not allowed to but it would be so good'.

"He had a desire to fulfil this fantasy and that just kept getting bigger and bigger. He tried to divorce himself completely from reality."

His sexual obsession would never leave him and he would remain a danger to women as long as he had sexual urges, she added.

As he was led away, Fritzl, in checked grey jacket, dark grey flannel trousers and light blue shirt, joked with his guards. In admitting all charges he becomes the first man in Austrian history to be convicted of enslavement.

The four-man, four-woman jury still play a role in passing sentence and return to court today. Spokesman Franz Cutka said Fritzl had been deemed "mentally abnormal but criminally responsible" meaning he is likely to serve his time in a secure unit rather than jail.

Elisabeth was told of his confession at the clinic where she was moved for the duration of the trial with cellar children Kerstin, 20, Stefan, 18, Felix, six, and the incest children who lived upstairs at 40 Ybbsstrasse - Lisa, 15, Monika, 14, and Alexander, 12.

They are expected to return to a home together as soon as possible.

It's because of the testimony of my daughter. I realised for the first time how cruel I'd been

JOSEF FRITZL

Ich bedaure es

(I regret it)

CAPTION(S):

BRAVE Elisabeth sat in gallery while her recorded testimony was heard; GUARDS Fritzl had 11 armed escorts as he came into court; CELLAR BEAST Evil Fritzl needed to dominate his victims