A FATHER who raped his daughter when she was aged between four and five has been jailed for nine years.

Judge Michael Mott described the man, from Worcester, as "an overwhelming bully" who had neglected and abused his children and forced his wife into heavy drinking.

"Many right-thinking people might consider no sentence long enough for what you did to your daughter at such a tender age. It almost beggars belief," he told the paedophile.

The man's former wife, who was convicted by a jury of molesting their eldest son when he was aged nine to 11, wept in the dock at Worcester Crown Court as she was given an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

Judge Mott accepted her life went downhill due to her husband and since then she had turned her life around.

After a trial in February this year, the father was found guilty of two counts of raping his daughter on the sofa of their filthy council house in Dines Green in the 1970s.

He was also convicted of two indecent assaults on another daughter, when she was between the ages of nine and 11 in the 1980s.

The mother was cleared of three counts of incest with her son but convicted of three counts of indecently assaulting him.

Prosecutor Graham Cliff said the couple, who are now divorced and remarried to different partners, had "a voracious appetite for sex" which escalated into child abuse.

The eldest daughter huddled under a blanket in the living room of the freezing cold house, where she was molested.

The second daughter was groped at her father's place of work.

The son described to the jury how his sherry-drinking mother labelled him "the man of the house" when her husband was at work and fondled his private parts.

He blamed his own 18-year criminal record on the abuse he suffered as a child.

The offences came to light in September 2000 when the police were investigating an unconnected incident.

Nigel Stelling, for the 54-year-old father, said he was unable to throw any light on the circumstances of his offending. The man still denied his guilt, despite the verdicts.

He had led a blameless life for many years since and suffered considerable anxiety over a serious medical condition.

Peter Arnold, for the 53-year-old mother, said that at the time she was a drunkard, unable to cope with her family. She turned to her son for some sexual satisfaction.

But she later re-married and due to her new husband was able to reform her character.

"She has put behind her this episode of debauchery and is now admired by her own family and neighbours," he added.

She was in poor health, suffering from asthma and arthritis and receiving a disability allowance.

The father must sign the sex offenders' register for life and the mother for 10 years.

The defendants cannot be named to protect the identities of the victims.