A Belgian couple who used their four daughters as sex slaves to fulfill their sexual fantasies have been sentenced to more than a decade in prison.
The unnamed mother and father, both in their forties and from the province of Limburg, appeared in court in Tongeren last month for the rape of their four daughters, who were between the ages of 12 and 21 at the time of the horrific abuse.
The man is said to be the father of one of the girls, while the other three are the woman's children from a separate partner.
Police were first made aware of the case when the two youngest daughters managed to escape the family home by bike on December 30 last year.
The sisters arrived at a center for sexual violence where they reported that they and their two other siblings had been repeatedly raped by their parents since January of 2022.
The girls were examined and were found to have pelvic injuries, bruising and sexually transmitted diseases, local outlet De Telegraaf reports.
According to local media the parents abused their daughters because they desired threesomes but lacked funds to hire prostitutes.
As a result, the mother would take the girls out of their bedrooms and lead them to her partner's 'man cave' where he would rape them up to nine times a day.
A Belgian couple who used their four daughters as sex slaves to fulfill their sexual fantasies have been sentenced to more than a decade in prison
The daughters were raped up to nine times a day
The mother reportedly participated in threesomes occasionally.
The girls were allegedly given alcohol, muscle relaxants and lubricants when the abuse took place.
One girl was told the sex would help her with her own relationships, while another was told that being sexually active with her stepfather would help her lose weight.
They were also threatened with being kicked out and ending up on the streets if they refused their parents' sexual advances.
Texts from the mother to the girls showed the level of manipulation they faced, with messages revealing how she would tell them that if they didn't participate they would destroy the family.
Following the two youngest daughters' escape, the couple were arrested in their home on December 30 2023.
The mother admitted during an interview with police that she participated in the rapes of her daughters and stepdaughter because her partner would often beat her if she didn't comply.
She also confessed that she was afraid of losing him and was worried she would end up on the streets.
Meanwhile, the father accused his partner of coming up with the idea to repeatedly rape their daughters.
He also said it was often the girls who approached him themselves.
When delivering a verdict, the judge said: 'The proven facts are extremely serious. The defendants used their daughters to satisfy the father's sexual fantasies. At first they tried to do this by means of paid sex, but when they found that the financial resources were no longer available or that no one could be found, the defendants turned to the children within their own family and treated them as free sex slaves'.
The man was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The judge said: 'He could not control his sexual urges and showed absolutely no respect for the sexual integrity of his daughter and stepdaughters. In a completely deceitful manner, he continued to maintain that everything happened at the request of the children.'
The mother will spend 13 years behind bars.
'As the mother of three victims, she facilitated the abuse of her own daughters by, as it were, making them available to her partner and placing her relationship with him above the sexual integrity of her children,' the judge said.
'Statements show that she orally satisfied at least one of the victims herself. She therefore directly participated in the rapes.'