A dad who viciously assaulted three of his daughters – breaking the elbow of one with a cricket bat – has been jailed for three years.

The man, who cannot be named so as not to identify his children, was told by a judge he had abandoned his duty to protect them.

Sentencing him at Bradford Crown Court yesterday, Judge John Potter told the 39-year-old that what he had done was much more than momentary chastisement.

The judge said: “Those actions amounted to a brutal and sustained series of violent acts against your children in the sanctity of their own home.

“Your duty to protect and nurture your children was wholly abandoned by you in a series of vicious assaults with the use of a weapon.”

Prosecutor Ian Howard said the assaults, on girls aged 13, 12 and 11 at the time, took place at the family home in Girlington, Bradford.

Mr Howard said the eldest girl told her parents her 12-year-old sister had gone to a friend’s house, but they suspected she was meeting a boy, which was then confirmed by the mother.

When the 12-year-old returned home, her father became enraged about her behaviour and slapped her across the face.

He then went to the cellar and fetched a cricket bat and set about his eldest daughter with it, striking her twice on her legs and once on the arm, fracturing her elbow.

The defendant also hit the 12-year-old with the bat and slapped her again, leaving her with a swollen eye and cheek. He then grabbed the 11-year-old girl, twisted her arm, picked her up and threw her on to the floor, causing her to pass out.

He refused to let his wife take their eldest daughter to hospital and kept her off school the next day.

Mr Howard said the parents had to deal with a family illness and left their children in the care of other relatives - with instructions that the children were not to go to school.

The eldest girl reported the matter to teachers when she went back to school two weeks after the incident. She was then taken to hospital but suffered no complications with the injuries.

Mr Howard said the children were now in the care of the local authority and a decision had been taken to prosecute the mother for neglect.

The father, who wept during the proceedings, pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm on his eldest daughter and neglecting her, and causing actual bodily harm to the other two girls.

His barrister, Nick Askins, said his client was having real difficulties coping with his daughters as they got older and that had led to a loss of self-control.