A couple who let five children live in squalor were jailed for a total of eight and a half years.

Judge Anthony Scott-Gall said the trial had been "distressing in the extreme and, in my judgement, was so distressing neither of you has the right to be considered a member of civilised society."

Lewes Crown Court heard how the father, a 38-year-old caretaker, and his 26-year-old common-law wife let their children live in appalling conditions.

Social workers and health visitors told how the babies were fed sausage rolls and roast dinners before they were weaned, how they slept in bedding soiled with excrement while flies infested their cots, how their heads were overrun with lice, how they were ignored and rarely loved, and how they had little idea how to use cutlery or a toothbrush.

The father admitted the charges and was jailed for two years for neglect, three and a half years for rapes and indecent assaults on his two sisters and six months for threatening to slit the throat of a social worker.

His wife, who denied the offences but was convicted after a two-week trial, was jailed for two and a half years for neglect. The same couple were acquitted last year of murdering two of their babies, aged six weeks and 17 months, and a nephew of five weeks.

Experts said the babies had been smothered and the mother said her husband had smothered all three with pillows because they had been crying and "deserved it." The case has led to calls for a change in the law and a public inquiry which has been backed by MPs, church leaders and a 1,000-name petition.

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