F., 73, stunned the courtroom with his announcement that he wanted to admit negligent homicide relating to the death of Michael F., whose body he burned in a stove in his cellar.

He also admitted a charge of slavery, which he had previously denied.

F. told the jury: "I plead guilty to all the charges in the indictment."

The sex beast raped his daughter E. more than 3,000 times and fathered seven children by her as he kept her imprisoned in a dungeon below his home for 24 years.

He said he had had a change of heart after listening to 11 hours of pre-recorded evidence from E. in which she described in harrowing detail her decades of torture and abuse at his hands.

Asked by judge Andrea Humer what had caused him to change his plea, he replied: "My daughter's videotaped testimony." He added: "I'm sorry."

It means the trial could draw to a close as early as today, as the jury will no longer have to return a verdict and all that remains is for the judges to determine his sentence.

Negligent homicide carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, though a life term is not mandatory and so it is possible that F. changed his plea in a desperate last-minute bid to get a shorter sentence.

F.’s sudden about-turn may also have been influenced by a report from a neo-natal specialist, read to the jury on Tuesday afternoon, which said Michael could have survived if he had been taken to hospital when he developed breathing difficulties hours after his birth in 1996.

Instead of seeking medical help, F. is alleged to have told his daughter E. “what will be, will be,” and allowed the child to die three days later.

F. had already admitted charges of rape, incest, false imprisonment and coercion relating to the 24 years in which E. was imprisoned in the dungeon in Amstetten.