Held under freezing water, forced to eat her own vomit and threatened with a chainsaw: 'Well respected' couple jailed for sexually abusing and torturing daughter in a chicken coop

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A father and mother have been jailed for a maximum of 48 and 16 years respectively for the sexual assault and torture of their daughter over a 15-year period.

The NSW parents, who cannot be identified, subjected their child to sustained abuse and torture so graphic that some of the details are too vile to be published.

The 59-year-old father began abusing the girl when she was only five years old and it continued until she was 18, the court at Sydney's Downing Centre heard on Friday. 

A father and mother (pictured) have been jailed for a maximum of 48 and 16 years respectively for sexually abusing their daughter over 15 years

OFFENCES WERE 'OF AN UNIMAGINABLE MAGNITUDE'

Judge Sarah Huggett in Sydney's District Court sentenced him on Friday to at least 36 years in prison over 73 counts relating to the shocking abuse - the girl's mother was convicted of 13 abuse charges. 

Judge Huggett said the chance for any kind of rehabilitation for the father was 'bleak', and that he 'should not be released from custody before he passes away'. 

The 51-year-old mother was sentenced to a minimum 11 years for the 13 offences she was found guilty of. Both were found guilty in June following a trial which ran for several months.

Judge Huggett said the man carried out the sexual attacks over 15 years 'for his own depraved and sadistic reasons', and that his offences were 'of an unimaginable magnitude'. 

SORDID ATTACKS TOOK PLACE AT CHRISTMAS AND FATHER'S DAY 

The father (pictured) was jailed on Friday for a maximum of 48 years

Many of the sexual assaults took place on special occasions such as Christmas and Father's Day.

'It is atrocious in the extreme,' Judge Huggett said of the assaults on Friday.

The father was described as 'selfish, depraved and sadistic', and arrogant with an inflated ego.

'People were hoodwinked as to his true nature,' Judge Huggett said.

On Thursday, harrowing accounts of their shocking abuse, which included rape with sharp metal tools, were detailed by Judge Huggett in graphic detail that had the court horrified at times.

A RUNNING CHAINSAW WAS HELD TO GIRL'S NECK 

The court heard how the victim was subjected to having 'tangled barbed wire looped around her' and had a 'running chainsaw held to her neck' by her father to torture his daughter during the rapes.

DAD BOUND TERRIFIED DAUGHTER UP IN A CHICKEN COOP  

The father had also held the girl's head under freezing water in a creek, forced her to eat hot chillies while bound in the chicken coop and had threatened her with a machete.

Over the years of abuse the girl's mother was found to be complicit in the assaults and intentionally encouraged the sexual activity, the court heard. She also was involved in a number of indecent sexual acts with her husband on their daughter.  

On one occasion both of her parents were sexually assaulting their daughter on a bed when the girl vomited over the side of it. 

Because of her abhorrence at having to be involved with the couple she was forced to eat the vomit by the her parent in what was a court case filled with nauseating details and brutal sex assaults. 

YOUNG GIRL WAS WRAPPED IN BARBED WIRE BY FATHER 

Some of the other abuse used on the girl by her father was wrapping her in barbed wire and making her stand on an ants nest.

In a witness statement the victim - who self-harmed herself on multiple occasions during and after the horrific attacks - said: 'I will be forever damaged by the inhuman treatment I suffered.' 

The father and mother were jailed on Friday at the Downing Centre in Sydney

The girl has developed several disorders stemming from complex childhood trauma and requires ongoing counselling and sporadic treatment in hospital.

In the girl's victim statement she also said that she been put through a 'living hell'. 

She suffers frequent nightmares and flashbacks so bad she struggles to remain employed, study or enjoy relationships, Judge Huggett said. 

She experiences pain in her ribs, spine and knees due to the abuse she has suffered, the court heard.

In another nasty episode, in 2000 the family went to their local pub.

When they arrived home, the mother, who was by then drunk and slurring her words, offered her daughter, then aged eight, some words of advice when it came to having sex with her father.

TOLD TO 'MAKE NOISES' BY MOTHER DURING SEX WITH FATHER 

'It makes it better if you make noises,' the court heard. 

Both parents deny their guilt and the father had shown no remorse, Judge Huggett said.

'She will suffer the consequences of his despicable and horrible conduct for the rest of her life,' the judge told the court during her summing up of the case.  

With time served, the father will first be eligible for release in October 2049, while the mother can first apply for parole in June 2027.

The girl has developed several disorders stemming from the complex childhood trauma she suffered from the years of sexual abuse (stock image)