And he sexually abused his two daughters to an extent that shocked professionals used to dealing with the most harrowing of cases.

As the 56-year-old from Sheffield starts a jail sentence that may mean he is never released, Sheffield MP and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said he "can't imagine a better definition of being evil than the case of the father who repeatedly raped his two daughters over a period spanning more than quarter of a century".

Mr Clegg said he was never in the habit of second-guessing judges but added: "I tend to share the feeling that if you want to think of a crime that doesn't deserve anyone to ever walk free again, this is one of the them."

The rapist made his daughters pregnant 19 times, resulting in the births of several children.

Sheffield Crown Court heard how the man terrified his children and wife with his domineering and aggressive ways.

When they heard him arriving home in his car they would run to their rooms to keep out of his way. If anything upset him he thought nothing of punching and slapping them and using his belt.

He forced his youngest daughter's face to just a fraction away from the flames of their fire on one occasion.

When the mother and father went out for a night they didn't use babysitters. The children were locked in their bedrooms.

The girls were kept off school if they were showing signs of any of the violence and if they were questioned they said they were being bullied at school.

One of the ways the rapist stopped his children alerting the police or social services was telling them they would have the children they had given birth to taken away.

When they did pluck up the courage to ring ChildLine, they asked for a guarantee that they could keep their children.

When no guarantee was given, they ended the call.

The father kept the family isolated, moving around the country, and rarely having visitors.

If suspicions were ever raised he would move on elsewhere.

As his daughters got older he refused to let them have boyfriends, beating them if he thought they were forming friendships.

The girls were so afraid of their father that they did not even confide in each other until they bore children from the rapes and the truth began to emerge.

The decades of abuse were finally revealed by the victims in June when the younger daughter confided in a social worker who rang the police.

Sheffield Crown Court heard that the girls' mother knew her daughters were being abused by their father but turned a blind eye.

As part of the police investigation into her husband's abuse, she was arrested on suspicion of child cruelty but no charges were brought against her.

The father pleaded guilty to 25 specimen charges of rape and four indecent assaults – but his daughters both told police the rapes were persistent, happening at least every few days for more than two decades.

Sheffield's senior judge Recorder Alan Goldsack QC said: "The phrase 'it is difficult to imagine a worse case' is much overused and rarely if ever true.

"I am not going to say no worse case of rape within a family situation will ever come to light. But I can say in nearly 40 years of dealing with criminal cases the combination of aggravating circumstances here is the worst I have come across."

He described the case as "the grossest possible breach of trust" and said the father "did everything possible" to hide what was going on behind closed doors.

Sentencing him, he said: "Not once, throughout all those years, did either of your daughters consent to having sexual intercourse with you – but after initial attempts to prevent you doing it when younger they realised resistance was futile and submitted to avoid further violence."

Psychiatric tests indicated no mental illness but premeditated and calculated abuse aimed at satisfying sexual urges and controlling his victims. The father only confessed when the DNA results were produced.

At first he insisted his daughters were consensual partners, which they denied.

His barrister, James Baird, said: "It is hard to imagine a more serious and distressing case than this one.

"It must be inconceivable to those that have listened to this how in this day and age, in a so-called civilised society, that such abuse can go for so long and with such consequences without it ever being reported or at least thoroughly investigated by the authorities.

"It's equally incomprehensible that, despite the circumstances and real suspicions being raised, nothing was done by social services to investigate how two young women could have endured multiple pregnancies.

"The only apparent male in these young women's lives was their own father.

"The complainants and their children attended many, many hospital appointments and were in receipt of genetic counselling and yet even among the medical experts no-one sought to probe further as to how these cases arose and appear to have accepted the complainants' words that their father was not the father of their own children."

He said his client's heavy drinking had impaired his judgement. His own upbringing, when he, too, was abused as a child, may have had an impact upon him.

He added: "He said he is disgusted and appalled by his behaviour."




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