An evil father who forced his children to eat their pet rabbit during 15 years of horrific abuse has been jailed.
The 77-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victims, put his children through ‘sadistic and gratuitous’ physical and emotional abuse during the 1970s and 80s, a court has heard.
The father, of Market Drayton, Shropshire, once made the youngsters choose between two family dogs, before dumping the other in the countryside and driving off while the children watched it chase the family car.
In another twisted act, he killed the family’s pet rabbit and forced the children to eat it for their dinner.
One of the children, who was scared of spiders, was forced to lie in the cellar, while an arachnid was placed on her face.
The tragic children were also ‘lined up’ and beaten with ‘sticks and weapons’ for minor misdemeanors, including wetting themselves.
The monstrous father was jailed for three-and-a-half years at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Thursday.
Prosecutor Anthony Longsworth said the incidents of physical and mental humiliation spanned the victim’s entire childhoods.
He added all three children had suffered psychologically throughout their lives, with several becoming dependent on alcohol, one attempting suicide, while the third left the country as soon as they were able to leave home.
Mr Longworth said ‘They were forced to eat the family pet. He ruined them all.’
He told the court he also strangled a family dog in front of the children.
The man, who had denied child cruelty, had told a jury trial he was ‘just a disciplinarian’.
But he was convicted of three counts of child cruelty and one count of actual bodily harm for kicking and punching his daughter, leaving her scarred, after she came home with a love bite.
Jailing him for three-and-a-half years, Recorder Julian Taylor branded the defendant a ‘bully and a sadist’.
He said: ‘This went far beyond discipline or reasonable chastisement. It was cruelty and physical abuse occurring regularly.’
The judge continued: ‘You put a spider on the face of one child, along with the cruelty to the family pets, which was also cruelty to the children.
‘One episode that I can’t forget, no matter how much I may want to, is that you asked them to make a choice between their two dogs and then you drive out to the countryside with the three children in the car, entice the dog out of the car and you shut the door and drive off and the children had to watch it running after the car.
‘Their pet rabbit you killed and offered up for supper – whether the children started to eat the rabbit is unclear. Fact is it was killed and you said they must eat their pet rabbit.’
However, in passing sentence the judge said he was ‘bound’ by the sentencing guidelines of 40 years ago.
He added: ‘Times have changed.
‘When these offences took place there was a maximum sentence of two years and I am bound to that. The maximum now is 14 years.
‘But I am not constrained by the case of actual bodily harm when your child came back with a love bite, not uncommon with teenagers, and you went absolutely ballistic, lost all sense of control.’