Josef Fritzl, notorious for locking his daughter in the cellar of their house for years and abusing her, will remain in custody after his failed attempt to be released on parole.

A regional court in Austria decided on Thursday.

According to a spokesman for the court, a bench of three judges at the Krems Regional Court to the west of Vienna decided that the 88-year-old would not be released early for preventive reasons.

However, the prisoner is to be transferred to a normal detention centre under certain conditions.

According to the court spokesman, this decision is not yet legally binding.

Mr Fritzl was sentenced to life imprisonment in March 2009. 

The charges in the trial were murder by neglect, rape, deprivation of liberty, aggravated coercion, slavery and incest.

Since then, the trained electrical engineer has been serving time in the specialist Stein prison near Krems, where he had to undergo therapy.

In 1984, Mr Fritzl locked his then 18-year-old daughter in the soundproofed cellar of his house in the small Austrian town of Amstetten.

Over the next 24 years, he raped her thousands of times and fathered seven children with her. One of them died.

According to the authorities, the wife, who lived on the first floor of the house with the rest of the family, was unaware of any of this.

The case came to light in 2008 and made headlines around the world.

Mr Fritzl took on a new surname in prison. 

(dpa/NAN)