He liked to refer to himself as “The Gaffer”. And he developed a series of simple tactics to disguise the repeated rape of his two daughters.

When neighbours began asking about the growing family next door — and the lack of a man except the newborns’ grandfather — they were met with evasion and threats.

Then in little time, often as little as six months, the family would move on, leaving behind unanswered queries from the occasional curious police officer, doctor, social worker or teacher, and a swirl of unconfirmed suspicions among the community.

The awful secrets of years of sexual abuse went with the all-controlling father and the two daughters, whom he impregnated 19 times, fathering a total of nine children. The case has been compared to that of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian rapist who kept his own daughter locked in a dungeon under the family home for 24 years, fathering seven children with her.

But while that case involved physical concealment, the abuses conducted in Britain were far more blatant, yet still went undetected. The women’s dungeon was psychological — built from fear, threat, shame and the repeated failure of authorities to engage with the details of their plight.

As police and social services in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire announced an independent review into one of the worst cases of forced incest uncovered, there were claims that the authorities were warned of the abuse more than 20 years ago.

The daughters were aged about 8 when their father — known in court as Mr X — began his campaign of abuse. They quickly learnt that if they refused his approaches they would be punched, kicked and sometimes held to the flames of a gas fire, burning their eyes and arms.

It is understood that the daughters’ mother, herself the victim of appalling violence, fled the home soon after the abuse started. She claims that she was unaware of the sexual abuse of her children, and was ostracised by her husband, who convinced their daughters that she was to blame for the breakdown of the marriage.

Mr X, who is white and British, moved his family regularly, often relocating to isolated villages, so the girls never remained in one place long enough to make friends in whom they could confide. Nicholas Campbell, QC, for the prosecution, told Sheffield Crown Court yesterday that he also prevented all but a few visitors to their various homes.

“Rather than having baby-sitters, the children recall being locked in their rooms when their mother and father went out,” he said. “They moved from South Yorkshire to Lincolnshire and lived in small, isolated villages. Even then there was speculation and talk from the neighbours about the growing family but the lack of any other men apart from the man who called himself the grandfather.”

The father prevented his children from alerting the police or social services by telling them that they would have their children taken from them.

“All the family were frightened of him,” Mr Campbell said. “When they heard his car pulling up outside the house, the children and their mother ran to their respective rooms.”

While he was having sex with both daughters he would ask one to baby-sit the offspring while raping the other.

His elder daughter once paid him £100 a month out of her child benefits for him to stop abusing her, but it did not last long. On one occasion he held a knife to her throat and said: “It’s never going to end. You have to do what you are told.”

When he first got his elder daughter pregnant, at 14, he punched and kicked her in the stomach as he said that was one way of aborting the baby. But once the first child was born and the authorities did not discover he was the father, he no longer felt driven to violence as the pregnancies mounted.

At one point the desperate sisters called ChildLine. They asked for a guarantee that they could keep their children, but when one was not offered, they ended the call.

Towards the end of the years of abuse, the father offered his younger daughter £500 to have another child with him.

The court was told that in half of cases where a father and child or brother and sister have a baby, severe illness, premature death or genetic abnormalities will occur. “There were many miscarriages and several abortions when clear disabilities were found on screening,” Mr Campbell said.

On a number of occasions doctors advised the women to stop having children by the same father. One doctor asked one of the women whether her father was also the father of her child. She flatly denied the accusation.

“All the time, when the sisters were challenged about the paternity of their children, they would cover it up,” Mr Campbell said.

Relatives claim that they had told police of the abuse after the birth of the first child but officers failed to act. They say that the sisters’ grandmother was told that she could be sued for slander for telling officers that the father had got the elder girl pregnant.

The father’s sister-in-law said: “The police could have stopped it. They let those girls down. Our family has gone to the police a number of times over the years.”

The elder daughter’s school became suspicious when she arrived for lessons hungry and covered in bruises aged about 10. When staff raised the matter the father moved the family to another area.

It emerged yesterday that social workers in Lincolnshire had contact with the family when suspicions were first raised. Years later, in 1997, police investigated the family after the sisters’ brother, who fled home aged 15, came forward with “hearsay evidence” of incest. No action was taken.

The family moved back to South Yorkshire in 2004 and social services again became involved. Once again, no action was taken.

When the father was finally arrested in June this year he initially denied any sexual relationship with his daughters and said any violence was “proper chastisement”. He changed his plea when DNA tests proved that he was the father of his daughter’s children.

The elder daughter is now facing up to telling her children about the past. “Despite being born out of hate, we love our kids and always will. I am having to try to tell my kids, but it is going to be very difficult,” she said.

Her father refused to appear in court to hear his sentence.

In a letter from prison to his brother he wrote: “I haven’t got any regret over what has happened. It’s too late for that. It shouldn’t have happened.”

Causes for concern

Lincolnshire Social Services were in early contact with the family over suspicions that the father was being abusive towards his children

1988 Suspicions raised at the daughters’ school because of their injuries. These were attributed to bullying

1988-2002 Doctors raise concerns on several occasions to the two daughters about father of their children and the abnormalities in foetuses that did not survive

1997 Police investigate after brother makes allegations of incest. No action taken

1998 One daughter rings ChildLine to report abuse. Drops complaint on being told that there was no guarantee that she would be able to keep her children

2004 Social services involved when family returns to South Yorkshire

February 2008 Father rapes younger daughter for last time

June Police arrest father when daughters make complaint after approach from journalists

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