An 83-year-old man who sexually abused his two young daughters three decades ago by giving them erotic massages was helped to the cells after he was jailed for a year at Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

The frail former Bradford nurse, who made his family practice naturism, was labelled “a domineering and controlling personality,” by the judge.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the identities of his victims, was convicted by a jury of repeatedly indecently assaulting his younger daughter and indecency with her.

He was found guilty of indecently assaulting the elder girl on one occasion.

The court heard that the abuse had an ongoing effect on the lives of the women.

Judge John Potter praised their courage and fortitude throughout the trial.

The pensioner’s barrister, Stephen Spence, urged the judge to suspend the prison sentence because of his client’s age.

But Judge Potter said the two women had undergone vigorous cross-examination at his instigation and been forced to relive the horrors of their childhood.

The man, who lives in a care home in East Anglia, committed the offences when he and his family were in the Bradford area in the 1980s.

One of his daughters told the court her father thought child abuse was “socially acceptable”.

He would practice erotic massage on her in the attic when she was about 11. They were both naked and he told her it was “our little secret.”

She said he was very keen on naturism and would massage her whole body.

“We did nudist swimming, nudist everything he could get us to go to,” she said.

Judge Potter said the man repeatedly molested the younger girl.

“Acting under the veneer of massaging her injured back, you indulged in sessions of sustained sexual abuse,” he said.

The man discussed inappropriate sexual matters with his young daughters.

“You thought it was in some warped way liberating for them,” he said.

He had two convictions, dating from the 1960s, for indecently assaulting a 14-year-old boy and gross indecency with a male under 18.

Judge Potter told the defendant he would spend his last years knowing what he had done to his own children.

Jailing him he said: “Your history of sexual abuse has caught up with you.”