A MAN who fathered six children with his daughter has been jailed for 15 years. He was convicted for sexually abusing her for more than 20 years.

His offences included raping his daughter, committing incest over a period of 16 years and indecently assaulting her between the ages of nine and 15.

Swindon Crown Court heard that three of the resulting children suffer from genetic disorders and are seriously disabled.

The father, aged 51, and daughter, 31, cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Her mother was described as being out of the house a lot as she frequently visited friends.

The victim could not recall precisely when the abuse started but remembers one of the first incidents took place at her grandmother's house.

Robert Duval, prosecuting, outlined the abuse, which started when she was eight or nine years old.

The abuse got steadily worse and when she was 16 he raped her.

At the age of 15, the victim talked to her father asking him to stop the abuse and just be her dad, the court heard.

But he would break down in tears and use emotional blackmail to persuade her to submit.

Mr Duval said: "She didn't tell others because she was frightened. She was fearful he would leave the family home and other people would suffer.

"She never initiated sexual intercourse and never encouraged it."

In one interview, the victim, said: "I just blanked it. I just shut it out of my mind.

She gave birth to the first of six children at the age of 19 and told her family the father was a central heating engineer.

The question of the paternity was not brought up by the family even though she went on to have five more children.

Three of the children inherited a genetic disorder.

By 2001, Social Services had become concerned about the children's paternity and the father and daughter were both arrested in November last year and the children were placed under a protective order.

Robin Shellard, defending, said his client had considered the enormity of what he had done during the nine months he had spent in Horfield Prison, near Bristol.

He said the man had a great deal of affection for his daughter and their children and that he had not used physical force on his daughter.

Sentencing him Judge John McNaught said: "The fact is that you were the victim's natural father, that you took no responsibility for the series of pregnancies and that the remorse you show was much more remorse for yourself than remorse for what she has suffered and what these children will suffer for the rest of their lives."

As well as the 15-year sentence, which he must serve at least two-thirds of, the offender has been placed on the sexual offenders register for the rest of his life.