Dr. Raoul Wagner, an eminent Viennese lawyer, warned that the charges have ‘little chance of working to keep Fritzl in jail for life’.

But Wagner says: ‘I am convinced that after six-and-a-half-years he will be free again. The murder charge has no chance as the body was allegedly burnt and the ashes scattered in the garden.

‘There is nobody and only Elisabeth’s word over the details.

‘The slavery charge has never been used since it was put on the books, and it does not really affect what happened here. He did not buy or sell his daugher in the slave trade, and the charges do not apply.

‘At the most the incest and rape charge apply, and as sentences run concurrently, the most he would face would be rape – which means seven-and-a-half years with good behaviour, which with the year already spent inside means in six-and-a-half years he could be released.