UK: A dad who raped his own daughter and even fathered his own child with her has been handed a life sentence - with the judge saying such severe sentences are normally reserved for murderers.
But as the man was sent down, his daughter cried out to him that she still loved him.
As her father was led away from the dock, his victim ran towards him, calling out: "Wait, I love you. I miss you."
The Derbyshire man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was given a life prison sentence for his heinous acts over a four-year period.
A judge admitted he found it hard to even put into words the horror of his offences. Derby Crown Court heard the defendant had destroyed his daughter’s childhood and caused her life to fall apart.
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The girl had begged him to stop the abuse and after each time he raped her he said he would not do it again, but he continued to do so.
Abuse only stopped once her school alerted the authorities that the teenager was pregnant.
She initially refused to tell anyone who the father was but a paternity test carried out after the baby was born last year revealed that her own dad was the father.
The court heard he had been her sole carer and over a four-year period had raped her on a regular basis.
Judge Stuart Rafferty QC said the defendant would have sex with her when he was "angry or out of sorts" and although he never used violence against her, "threats of violence were commonplace".
He told the man that life imprisonment was usually imposed in cases of murder, where someone's life had been lost.
But, he added: "You took your daughter's life."
He said the man had done this not just once but every time he had sex with her against her will.
Jailing the man, telling him he must serve a minimum of 15 years before he would be considered for parole, Judge Rafferty said: "It's difficult to find words that could properly describe the extent of your deprivation and the damage that that deprivation has caused, not to a stranger but to your own daughter.
"Children do not ask to be born. Children are entitled to expect the best from their parents, in terms of care and parental love, that they can possibly receive.
“You gave your daughter a warped variation of that, a variation that suited you, not her.
“And, although I know you have to serve a prison sentence for that, the sentence you imposed upon her is a far greater one."
The judge said the man consigned his daughter to "a life of darkness", making her lead an isolated life so that she had no-one to turn to.
"She loved you, as any child loves its parents, and although people may think it strange, she loves you still – that's what children do," said Judge Rafferty.
"All she wanted was a normal life with you and every time she asked you, you told her not to bring that up again. So it was, she lived in a state of perpetual fear."
The weeping daughter had told the court: "The abuse has set my life on the wrong course and destroyed the normal childhood and teenage years that everyone deserves.
"I feared the consequences of disclosure because I love my dad.
"I know what he did was wrong, but I grew up with my dad by my side. I just wanted him to get help to make him better but unfortunately that never happened and it has come to this.
"It's come to me having a baby and to the father being my dad and to him being sentenced and my life falling apart."
The man admitted rape. When he is released from jail he will be on the sex offenders' register and must abide by a sexual harm prevention order for the remainder of his life.