THE wife of a ‘tyrant’ East Lancashire father-of-14 who is alleged to have controlled his family and raped his step-daughter, told a jury he had been violent to her 'nearly every day'.

The woman, who is now her fifties and has several children by the man, claimed he had given her black eyes, slapped her, kicked her, thrown things at her, threatened to choke her and pushed her down the stairs when she had a baby in her arms.

She described her husband, who she had lived with in the Burnley area, as 'proper nasty.'

Burnley Crown Court earlier heard how the defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had a mistress as well as a wife and was said to have “totally dominated” members of his family.

He is alleged to have raped his stepdaughter and had four children by her. The man, now 60, faces 42 charges — seven counts of rape, seven of indecent assault, six of assault causing actual bodily harm, 17 allegations of cruelty to a child, one of damage and four counts of false imprisonment.

The alleged offences are said to have taken place between 1988 and last year.

The court was told the man had been found to have a disability, was not fit to be tried and the jury would have to decide if he had done the acts complained of. He is not in court for the hearing.

Louise Whaites, prosecuting, said: “He totally dominated many members of his family and they were expected to do whatever it was he asked of them. They were all aware that failure to do what was asked of them would result in physical violence.”

The wife told the court that in 1990 both she and the other woman became pregnant by the defendant. She continued: “I told him I was pregnant again. He said to me he didn't want my baby, he wanted hers.”

The woman said: “I wasn't going to get rid of the baby. I wasn’t going to leave the kids with him, because at the end of the day they were my kids. I gave birth to them. Nobody was going to get my babies. I stayed there and just put up with it.”

(Proceeding)