A British fritzl?

A man who fathered three children after raping his daughter and stepdaughter was jailed for 19 years today.

The man, 51, was described as a "cruel, violent, controlling, manipulative sexual offender" as he was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court.

The court heard that he raped the two teenage girls up to three times a week and beat them with a leather belt if they refused.

His stepdaughter conceived two children with him, the first when she was 15, the second when she was 20.

The man's own daughter was 16 when she conceived her child.

He was found guilty of eight counts of rape and two counts of child cruelty after a trial.

He pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual activity with a child.

Sentencing him today, Judge John Potter said: "You are a cruel, violent, controlling, manipulative sexual offender who has shown little, if any, remorse for the harm that you have caused."

Judge Potter said: "The rape and child cruelty counts reflect the brutal and sustained abuse by you of two of your children, your stepdaughter and your natural daughter, over a significant period of time."

He continued: "Both of your victims indicated in their evidence...that for a time you were raping them as frequently as three times a week.

"Abuse supported by the threat of a beating by you with a leather belt if they did not comply."

The court heard the man had brought his stepdaughter up from a young age and she was "to all intents and purposes his daughter".

Judge Potter said he was a "strict disciplinarian" who would beat his children with a variety of weapons, including a slipper, a belt and a cricket bat, if they did not obey him.

The judge said the man used rape to punish his stepdaughter, who he abused between the ages of 13 and 15, until she conceived her first child.

He did not rape her again until she was 19 after she told her mother that he was having an affair with another woman.

Judge Potter said: "Your response was to resume the rape...it seems as a punishment for her telling her mother of the affair."

The court heard he raped her on at least four occasions until she conceived her second child, aged 20.

Around three years later, he began the "sustained and systematic raping" of his own daughter.

The court heard it was possible the man's daughter became pregnant by him when she was 15 but she terminated the pregnancy.

She conceived another child by him a year later.

Judge Potter said: "You used rape to punish at least one of them and to control the other.

"There is a clear breach of trust here. You were the father of one victim and the stepfather of the other. Both were in your care."

He added: "You are indeed a father of three children all by your victims in this case. Those three children face a challenge in their lives of confronting issues of identity and worth placed upon them by you being their biological father.

Judge Potter commended the two women for their "acts of bravery" in giving evidence during the trial.

He sentenced the defendant to 19 years in prison for each count of rape and six years to run concurrently for the child cruelty charges.