VIENNA, Austria - An Austrian man accused of imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering her seven children is expected to go on trial before the end of the year.
Franz Cutka, a spokesman for a national court in St. Poelten in Lower Austria province, says preparations for the trial are going `at full speed.'
He says the case will likely be heard beginning in the fall or this winter.
Prosecutors say Fritzl has confessed to holding his daughter captive in a cell beneath his apartment in the town of Amstetten, west of Vienna.
Authorities say DNA tests have confirmed Fritzl is the father of six of his daughter's children. Fritzl has said he tossed the body of the seventh into a furnace after it died in infancy.
Fritzl remains in detention in St. Poelten, 80 kilometres west of Vienna.
