1979 New York child murder trial gets under way

A mentally unstable man accused of killing a six-year-old boy in one of America's most famous missing child cases went on trial Friday, 36 years after the crime.

Pedro Hernandez, 53, is accused of luring Etan Patz into the basement of a New York grocery store, before killing Patz and dumping his body out with the trash on May 25, 1979.

Prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon painted a picture of a happy, innocent little boy who met a sudden, violent death, calling it a crime "that changed the face of this city forever."

The case awakened millions of Americans to the dangers of child abduction, fueling a generation of hyper-vigilant child rearing by parents terrified of letting their offspring out of sight.

Hernandez was arrested on a tip in 2012, and confessed to police to killing the boy. He has since recanted and pleads not guilty.

Illuzzi-Orbon told the 12-person jury that the blonde-haired Etan was a little man "with a big heart" and an "infectious smile" who was murdered before his mother even knew he was missing.

Etan vanished after leaving his Manhattan home to walk alone for the first time to the bus stop to go to school.

His parents only realized he was missing when he failed to return at the end of the day. His body has never been found.

The New York State Supreme Court was packed for the start of the trial. Hernandez sat motionless, dressed smartly in trousers and a pin-striped shirt.

His lawyer Harvey Fishbein said Hernandez has an IQ of 70, which would put him in the bottom two percent of the population, and argued that convicted sex offender Jose Ramos was the real culprit.

Etan's father, Stan Patz, took a seat in the courtroom but his mother is too upset to appear other than for her testimony.