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The judge described the man’s form of discipline ass “draconian,” allowing him to have a “remarkable degree of control” over the women and girls in the home.

They were forced to keep journals about religion, and then have those journals reviewed and corrected.

Punishment for not following the father’s strict and sometimes bizarre rules included being sent to a tent outside the home, with limited food and heat, sometimes for weeks at a time, the court heard.

Not long after moving into the bush, the man announced that God had approved of him taking his eldest daughter, then 15, as his new wife.

In 2009, he took his daughter on a honeymoon and told his family that “angels” had again approved of the relationship.

The eldest daughter was subjected to barbaric physical abuse. It including once being handcuffed to a tree in nothing but shorts and a T-shirt at the height of mosquito season because of her “lustful thoughts.”

She was also forced to walk the 150 kilometres from the family acreage into the closest community. As well, she was once hit with a board so hard she believed her wrist had been broken.

Unlike most cases of incest, where the sexual abuse is a “dirty family secret,” the man did not try and hide his relationship with his eldest daughter.

He repeatedly told his younger children about sex with their sister until they came to accept it as normal, Faulkner said.

The man took hundreds of pornographic images, which he later described to the RCMP as images from a loving relationship, the judge said.