Christiane Burkheiser, Josef Fritzl prosecutor

At the centre of the Josef Fritzl courtroom drama in Austria stands State Prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser, whose dramatic opening statement on Monday would have given some of her flamboyant American counterparts a run for their money.

The 33-year-old high-flyer is prosecuting her first case since being appointed chief prosecutor for Lower Austria, and it is unlikely that she, or anyone else in the town of St Poelten, will ever be involved in such a high-profile one again. But if she was nervous, she did not let it show.

Before proceedings began, Burkheiser meticulously adorned the courtroom with masking tape to mark out the dimensions of the dungeon in which Fritzl had imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth for 24 years. During her opening statement she used a laser pointer to draw the court's attention to the tape illustrating the narrowness of entrances and low ceilings.

The drama really began as she painted a vivid and disturbing picture of life in the dank cellar below the Fritzl family home where Elisabeth and her children were forced to crawl through corridors. She told how Elisabeth "got her air from the cracks in the walls" and went for days without light.

"But do you know what the worst thing was?" she asked the jury. "The uncertainty: when will he return, when will he turn on the electricity, when will he go again, what will happen if he doesn't return?".

Fritzl, 73, has admitted imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and raping her. But he has denied enslaving her or murdering one of her children. Burkheiser is out to persuade the jury that he is guilty of every charge leveled against him and, as the Times report puts it, her technique is "to make the jurors feel like temporary prisoners of Fritzl".

At one stage on Monday, she told jurors how Fritzl would come into the dungeon and turn off the lights while he raped Elisabeth. Burkheiser killed the courtroom lights to emphasise her point. "Light off: rape," she announced as she flicked the switch. "Light on. Josef Fritzl leaves the cellar."

Burkheiser then produced a box of objects taken from the dungeon and handed them to the jurors. "Smell!" she commanded. The fetid stench made them retch.

It was a bravura performance from the young prosecutor, who works from an office just yards from the cell where Fritzl is being held. People describe Burkheiser as "lively and extroverted" and she is often seen walking her dog Jogi, who accompanies her to work, around St Poelten.

She keeps fit by running and practising ju-jitsu. However, she has admitted that the pressure of the case, which has focused the attention of the world's media on St Poelten, has led her to take up smoking - five years after she quit.

The picture of Fritzl hiding his face behind a blue folder may be the enduring image of the opening day of the trial - but Burkheiser's opening statement in front of a packed court has set the tone for what will be an extraordinary and emotional few days.