A WOMAN whose ‘tyrant’ stepfather allegedly fathered her four children in a lengthy campaign of sexual abuse was ‘too scared’ to tell anyone of her ordeal, a jury heard today.

His name was not on the birth certificate of any of the children and she was warned by him she would go to prison for falsifying details if the reality emerged, Burnley Crown Court was told.

It is alleged the 60-year-old, a father of 14, who cannot be named for legal reasons, first raped his step-daughter, when she was 15.

After the birth of her second child, a midwife was so concerned the family was concealing something she wrote to social services.

No official intervention followed from the authorities, and the man's abuse of his step-daughter was allowed to go on ‘unchecked’ until she began to see it as part of normal life, the prosecution says.

Yesterday, the jury viewed a DVD recording of a police interview the woman gave when the alleged rapes were uncovered.

She said sexual touching began when she was aged 14 and progressed to full sex a year later when she lost her virginity to him.

She gave birth to her first child at the age of 16 and he continued to have sex with her in her bedroom several times a week while everyone else in the house was asleep, the jury heard.

She was asked if she wanted the children and replied: "They didn't ask to be born but I love them."

"Did you want these children with him as the biological father?" asked a female officer.

"No, it was not my choice," she said. "It was not the life I chose but I had to accept it or he'd be very aggressive...he'd scare the daylights out of me.

"It became kind of like a routine, that is the only life I've ever known.

"I was always too scared of him.

"I was always scared of being on my own, I had nowhere to go, I had no money or nothing."

She was asked : "You scared of him (now)?"

The woman replied: "Very scared. He's controlling, very very controlling."

Prosecutors have described how the man controlled his children and his partners with verbal, physical and, in some cases, sexual abuse for more than 20 years.

Proceeding.