An
evil mother who encouraged her partner to rape her young daughters in front of
her to benefit their 'sexual education' has been jailed for ten years.The 65-year-old urged her former lover to systematically rape her three girls - all under the age of 16 - over a seven-year period.
She told her children to wear provocative 'adult' underwear before plying them with alcohol.The grandmother, from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, then drove the girls to Bleadon, North Somerset, where they were raped separately by her partner.
Bristol Crown Court was told the woman only allowed the rapist to abuse her daughters when she was present as she derived a sexual thrill from the abuse.
Her actions, which took place over a seven-year period in the 1970s and 80s, were only reported to police in 2010 when a victim heard the rapist had died.
Officers quizzed the mother and she fully admitted what she had done. On Wednesday, she pleaded guilty to 25 charges of aiding and abetting the rape of her children.Her Honour Judge Carol Hagen jailed the sobbing grandmother for ten years, telling her she was 'as culpable if not more' than her former lover.
The judge said: 'You have pleaded guilty to the most gravest of offences, which spanned seven years.
'It is impossible to imagine a more gross breach of trust. As a victim mentioned, there was never any question of having a parent to support or protect her.
'On the contrary, you permitted and encouraged the greatest abuse and the effect on these women is incalculable.
'It is, on any view, extreme. You were a woman who your daughters found it difficult to disagree with.
'You were as culpable, if not more culpable, than the perpetrator of the rapes.'
The grey-haired pensioner - described as 'very intelligent' - said 'thank you' as she was taken away to start her sentence.
Prosecutor James Ward told the court she encouraged and helped her partner rape her three daughters from 1975 to 1982.
He said the offences finally came to light in December 2010, when one of the victims went to a pub and was told the man who raped her had died.
Mr Ward said the abuse had continued to affect the girls in later life, which was confirmed by testimonies from their husbands.
Tabitha Macfarlane, mitigating, told the court the mother first fell pregnant aged 17 and later met her lover.
She told him she had become pregnant on having intercourse for the first time and had no sexual experience other than with the father of her children.Miss Macfarlane said: 'Her boyfriend said she had ruined her life and she should stop that happening again by giving the girls sexual experience.
'He said it happened in different cultures, where young women are given sexual experience by a trusted friend or a member of their family.
'He said it would do them good.
'She says now it is disgusting and she must be punished. She is very intelligent. She is a very nice woman.'
She added that the mother would have stopped the abuse if the girls had ever resisted.
The court was told how the woman had led an unblemished life since the rapes and had even had her daughters to stay with her and looked after her grandchildren.
Speaking after the sentencing, James Ward, South West Crown Advocate at the Crown Prosecution Service, said the girls were 'extremely upset' by the abuse.
He said: 'This was the most gross breach of trust imaginable - her daughters should have been able to rely on their mother to safeguard them.
'Instead she helped her partner to subject them to regular and systematic rape between 1975 and 1982.
'By pleading guilty, she has at least spared them from giving evidence.
'Where there is sufficient evidence, the CPS will always seek to prosecute crimes of this nature, however historic they might be.
'This has been an extremely upsetting case for those who heard the evidence outlined by the prosecution and I hope the conclusion of this case brings some comfort to those most affected.