A religious tyrant and his cruel wife must stay behind bars after a judge refused them leave to appeal against their long prison sentences.

The Bradford couple were locked up in May after a jury found the father sadistically tortured his sons while his fervently Christian wife turned a blind eye.

The 47-year-old man was jailed for nine years and his wife, 41, for six years.

During the trial at Bradford Crown Court, the two boys told how they were tortured with safety pins, clothes pegs and scalpel blades.

They said their father sewed up the wounds to their mouths with a home medical kit. Their mother picked a blunt needle because it would be more painful.

The younger boy said he was tied to a chair, blindfolded and left all night with a safety pin through his mouth.

His brother was trussed up with cable and locked in a dark cupboard.

Both boys, then 13 and 11, are now in local authority care.

A spokesman for the Court of Appeal Criminal Division in London yesterday said the couple’s application for leave to appeal against conviction and sentence had been refused by a single judge.

He said the pair could seek leave to renew their application before the full court.

The man and his wife, who cannot be named to protect the identity of their children, were convicted at Bradford Crown Court in January.

The jury found the man guilty of 11 charges of cruelty and wounding and his wife of two charges of cruelty.

After the verdicts, the couple continued to deny all the allegations of beating and torture.

Judge Christopher Prince told the fanatical Christian preacher his campaign of long-term, calculated cruelty was almost beyond belief.

He described the woman as “a strong and forceful personality” who chose to do nothing to protect her two sons from their tyrannical father.