Fritzl's dungeon kids not to testify

London, Aug 23 : The six dungeon kids of Austrian incest fiend Josef Fritzl will not testify in his trial, officials have said.

His wife Rosemarie, 69, will also be spared giving evidence.

"They will not give statements. This decision is final," The Sun quoted court boss Kurt Leitzenberger, as saying.

When asked what this would mean for the trial, he said: "The picture is almost complete anyway.

"Their statements might have helped us but most of it was clear from the beginning."

Fritzl's autumn trial will be held behind closed doors in Sankt Poelten, Austria.

The family's lawyers warned this week they were too traumatised to give evidence.

Prosecutors insist statements from Fritzl's daughter Elisabeth, 42 - who was caged as a sex slave for 24 years - will "provide enough evidence".

But they had hoped her daughter Kerstin, 19, would help convict Fritzl, 74, for murder over the death of Elisabeth's newborn.

The tot was one of his seven incest kids.

Prosecutors believe the baby may have been alive when the beast tossed it into an incinerator in the dungeon he built at the family home in Amstetten.

ANI