'Wicked and devious' married couple who locked their daughter away from world and subjected her to years of rape and abuse are jailed for 23 years

• The child was never allowed out to play, never sent to school, and had no friends
• The daughter was home-schooled and the garden gate was kept padlocked
• Her parents photographed much of the abuse, Swansea Crown Court was told 

A husband and wife who kept their young daughter locked away from the world in their Welsh home and subjected her to years of rape and sexual abuse have been jailed for a total of 23 years. 

The child was never allowed out to play, never sent to school, and had no friends,  and is now so damaged she may never be able to be successfully adopted, Swansea Crown Court was told. 

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was subject to years of abuse by her parents, much of which was photographed by the pair. 

The name of the abusers and the specific location of their property cannot be reported to protect the identity of the child, who is now in foster care, but the man is in his 50s and the woman in her 20s.

The child was never allowed out to play, never sent to school, and had no friends, and has been permanently damaged by the abuse, Swansea Crown Court (pictured heard)

The couple met in a pub in England when the woman was aged just 16 and within months she was pregnant. They later moved to Wales.

Robin Rouch, prosecuting, told the court that the family did not socialise with neighbours, the daughter was home-schooled, the garden gate was kept padlocked, and curtains at the windows closed.

The man also controlled his wife's mental health medication and contact with doctors, cut her off from her family, and would not allow her to go shopping.

Mr Rouch said the defendant deliberately created the secluded and tightly controlled home environment 'in order to systematically and regularly abuse' his daughter without being discovered.

The prosecutor said it appeared the youngster had become 'conditioned to see the abuse as normal'.

The abuse eventually came to light when the husband and wife's relationship broke down and she told police.

When officers raided the couple's home they found sex toys, pornographic magazines, and newspaper cutting about young girls, along with home schooling books they had used to teach their daughter.

On the mother's phone officers found 76 indecent images of the couple's daughter being raped by her father, and sexually assaulted by her mother.

As part of their investigation Welsh detectives then contacted the man's children from his first marriage - the daughter told them her father had sexually abused her over an 18-month period.

The court heard his second wife is suffering from 'battered person syndrome', a form of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The court was told she had in effect been sexually groomed by her husband, who had spotted and exploited her vulnerabilities.

The prosecutor said the man had created a tightly controlled environment and it appeared the youngster had become 'conditioned to see the abuse as normal' (stock photo posed by actor)

A relative of the woman told the court that they had become so concerned about what was happening at the couple's home, and the way the husband was controlling his wife, that they had considered hiring a private detective to travel to West Wales to find out what was going on .

The daughter of the pair is now in long-term foster care.

Judge Geraint Walters said the husband had 'psychopathic tendencies' and a 'devious, wicked and flawed personality' - that combined with his wife's flawed personality and vulnerabilities was the 'chemistry' that allowed the abuse of the little girl to happen.

The judge said that their daughter had been kept locked up at home and cut off from the outside world, that she had never seen a playground, a cat or a dog, or gone on a bus.

He said: 'She is so damaged that it is hard to see how she will ever recover from it. Every day brings new challenges for her.

'She will remain forever vulnerable to future abusive relationships. She will carry the serious psychological scars for the rest of her life.'

The husband was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 12 years after pleading guilty to 16 counts of rape, sexual assault, and causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, the charges involving both his daughters.

The wife was convicted of 11 counts of sexual assault, causing a child to engage in sexual activity, cruelty by neglect, and taking indecent images after pleading not guilty due to duress.

She was given a 10-year sentence with an extended licence period of one year, and was ordered to be detained in a hospital for psychiatric treatment.