St Poelten, Austria - Prosecutors pressed on Tuesday with their evidence against Josef Fritzl, the retired Austrian electrician accused of keeping his daughter prisoner in a windowless cellar for 24 years and fathering seven children by her.

The 12-member jury heard taped testimony from the daughter, Elisabeth, on the second day of Fritzl's trial on charges of murder, rape, incest, false imprisonment and enslavement.

Fritzl, 73, listened attentively to the 11-hour video, which was shown in segments and also included evidence from a brother of Elisabeth, the court's vice president, Fritz Cutka, told an afternoon news conference.

Cutka declined to go into the content of the video, which was recorded over a period of several days in the presence of prosecutors and defence lawyers, or to say now Fritzl reacted to the evidence. .

Journalists and the public were excluded from Wednesday's proceedings because of the intimate nature of the disclosures, but were to be allowed to attend Wednesday morning's session when experts are due to give their opinion on the defendant's mental state.

Cutka said a verdict could be handed down on Thursday afternoon by the court in St Poelten after technical experts give their evidence and prosecutors and defence counsel make their final pleas.

Fritzl, whose arrest in April 2008 brought worldwide notoriety to the small town of Amstetten in Lower Austria, has pleaded guilty to seven counts of incest and false imprisonment and has admitted in part to rape.

But he has denied charges of enslavement and also of murdering one of the children, a twin who died shortly after birth and whose body he burnt in an oven.

Elisabeth, now 42, disappeared in 1984, when she was just 18. Fritzl hid her in the airless dungeon beneath his home without the knowledge of the rest of his family.

Four years later, Elisabeth's daughter Kerstin was born and remained incarcerated in the cellar with her mother. Of the subsequent six children, two more remained below ground, where they were permanently deprived of daylight.

Three children, whom Fritzl claimed were abandoned by his daughter on his doorstep, were then raised in the family home upstairs by Fritzl and his wife.

The accused hid his face behind a blue folder as he entered the courtroom clad in a grey check jacket and dark trousers for the start of Tuesday's hearing. But he let his guard drop when he returned after an interruption for lunch and photographers were able to take pictures of his face.

The jury - consisting of six men and six women - have been offered counselling because of the nature of the evidence. Fritzl himself asked to see a psychiatrist after Monday's hearing, according to a spokesman at the prison in St Poelten where he is being held.

If convicted of enslavement, Fritzl could face a maximum 20 years in jail. Rape carries a maximum 15-year sentence under Austrian law.

Elisabeth and her children are currently staying at the clinic in Amstetten where they spent several months after Fritzl's crimes were discovered when he took his eldest daughter to hospital for treatment of a mysterious illness.

The family had been given new identities. But paparazzi discovered their whereabouts, prompting them to leave their new home.