Life sentence for Briton who made his daughters pregnant 19 times
LONDON: A British man who raped his two daughters and fathered seven children by them has been jailed for life in a case described by the judge as the worst he had ever seen.
THE VICTIMS
'His detention in prison brings us only the knowledge that he cannot physically touch us again.
The 56-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, made his daughters pregnant 19 times over a 25-year period of abuse.
He was jailed for life at Sheffield Crown Court in northern England and must serve a minimum of 19 years and six months.
In court last month, the man admitted 25 rapes and four indecent assaults.
He made his elder daughter pregnant seven times, fathering two surviving children by her. He made his younger daughter pregnant 12 times. She has five surviving children.
The case bears similarities to that of Austrian Josef Fritzl, who fathered seven children with his daughter, whom he kept locked in a basement for 24 years, before being discovered in April.
After their father was sentenced, the daughters responded with a statement issued through the police.
'His detention in prison brings us only the knowledge that he cannot physically touch us again,' they said.
'The suffering he caused will continue for many years and we must now concentrate our thoughts on finding the strength to rebuild our lives.'
The court heard how the man, who refused to attend the hearing, took pleasure in fathering children by his daughters and threatened to beat them if they refused to have sex with him.
Said prosecutor Nicholas Campbell: 'All the defendant's children spoke of his domination over their family life...All the family were frightened of him.'
The incestuous abuse began in 1981, when the girls were between eight and 10 years old. Each only realised the other was also being abused when they fell pregnant some years later, the court heard.
The man's wife left him in the early 1990s, but the girls and their brother continued to live with him. The court heard of the various injuries suffered by both sisters throughout the years of abuse.
'His younger daughter told of the frightening habit her father had of putting her head next to the flames of their gas fire and that when she struggled to get away on certain occasions she burnt her eyes,' Mr Campbell said.
In one incident, the man held a knife to his eldest daughter's throat, claiming: 'It's never going to end.'
Said Mr Campbell: 'When either one of his victims tried to end the sexual abuse, he threatened to kill them and their children, and when they threatened to tell police, he said they would not be believed. He said that if they went public then the children would be taken away from them.'
The daughters spoke of his pleasure at fathering their children while at the same time they feared for the children's welfare and how the two of them would cope, the prosecutor said.
Judge Alan Goldsack said: 'I can say that in nearly 40 years of dealing with criminal cases and 14 as a family judge, the combination of aggravating circumstances here is the worst I have come across.
'I have little doubt that many members of the public hearing the facts of this case will consider either you should never be released from prison or only when you are old and infirm. I agree with that view.'
The judge also said that questions would inevitably be asked about what professionals - social and medical workers - had been doing for the last 20 years.
Those questions were likely to dominate front pages in Britain, where attention has lately focused on problems with the country's child welfare services.
The British tabloid press was already up in arms over the death of a toddler who was allowed to suffer months of excruciating abuse at the hands of caregivers despite regular visits to his home by social workers, doctors, and police.
