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Rapist admits he had seven children with his daughters
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent25.11.08
A RAPIST who fathered seven children by his two daughters during a campaign of abuse spanning more than 25 years was facing jail today.
The 56-year-old man "took pleasure" in knowing the harm he was doing to his daughters and threatened them with a "real hiding" if they refused to have sex with him, Sheffield crown court heard.
The defendant, who called himself the "gaffer", made his elder daughter pregnant seven times, fathering two children. Two other babies died the day they were born.
He made his younger daughter pregnant 12 times. She has five surviving children, the court heard.
The defendant, from Sheffield, who cannot be named, has admitted 25 rapes and four indecent assaults. He was set to be sentenced today by the Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Alan Goldsack.
The court heard the defendant also had a son, who lived with them until his teenage years.
Nicholas Campbell QC said: "All the defendant's children spoke of his domination over their family life. He was tall and strongly built. His son described him as having a Jekyll and Hyde personality."
The court heard the sexual abuse started when the two sisters reached the age of eight. They were kept from school when they bore physical injuries and there were few visitors to the home.
Mr Campbell said: "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."
