An incestuous paedophile who “abused and defiled” his three daughters over a 13-year period has been jailed for five-and-a-half years.

The 70-year-old retired Bradford lorry driver, who cannot be named to protect their identities, was responsible for a humiliating campaign of abuse against them, which began in 1967 when they were all aged under 13.

He was convicted of 29 charges of cruelty and sexual offences after a trial in September, which the judge said was so harrowing he felt it necessary to excuse the jurors from further jury service for five years.

As the defendant was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court yesterday, prosecutor Kitty Taylor told how he had used a belt to strike the girls, and would imprison them in a cold cellar for hours at a time, sometimes while they were naked, at the family home in Girlington.

She said his actions could not be described as overchastisement of unruly children, but were gratuitous.

His daughters, now middle-aged, had suffered long-term psychological effects due to his abuse, she said.

Describing his behaviour as displaying “utter depravity” Judge Jonathan Rose gave further details of the abuse inflicted on the girls by their father.

He cut their hair in such a way as to expose them to bullying, made one of them wear a “pregnancy dress” and holidays would be cut short at his will, said Judge Rose.

He entered the bathroom while they were bathing to look at their naked bodies, and lifted their bedcovers when they were asleep.

One of the girls was taken with him to his work as a driver, where he abused her in the cab of his vehicle.

Even in adulthood, his control over the women continued, Judge Rose said.

The court heard how the man made one of the daughters go with him on the morning of her wedding day to buy a windscreen wiper, how he would take their wages and how he would punish them if they had boyfriends.

“All these things point to the bullying and overbearing character that you truly are and to the miserable life which these women have suffered by your actions,” the judge said.

Sentencing the abuser to five and a half years’ in prison and ordering him to sign the sex offenders register for life, Judge Rose told him: “Your daughters have shown dignity, courage and fortitude.

“You have shown nothing but cowardice, arrogance and a complete absence of any remorse whatsoever.

“I am satisfied you were able to pursue your perverted and disgusting lifestyle because you ruled your family with a firmness which was, as the jury found, based in cruelty.”

After the hearing one of the daughters, speaking on behalf of all three sisters, said: “We are just glad it is all over and done with, it’s been a big relief.

“The sentence is not long enough for what he has done, but it is justice at the end of the day. He took all my childhood away from me.

“We feel we might be able to get some closure now.”