The press have dubbed it "paedophilia village"

A former Belgian bar owner who raped his own daughters and then turned one of them into a prostitute for his neighbours has been jailed for nine years.

Six other people from the same village - including the family doctor and the girls' stepmother- were also jailed.

The court in the southern Belgian town of Neufchateau heard that the girls were aged about 10 and 11 when their ordeal began.

After both their father, 37, and stepmother had engaged in sexual relations with the girls, one was prostituted to friends and neighbours. Some were clients at the bar which their father ran at the time.

Doctor found guilty

Other "clients" were contacted through the family doctor, the court heard.

Another 12 defendants were either acquitted or given suspended sentences.

The offences took place in the remote village of Sainte-Ode in southern Belgium.

The girls' stepmother was jailed for eight years, and the doctor - who denied his guilt - was given five years.

The couple admitted their guilt and asked the girls to forgive them.

'Life destroyed'

A letter from one of the girls, read out to the trial by the prosecution, accused the couple of destroying her life.

The couple were cleared of separate charges of abusing their two-year-old daughter.

The case came to light only when one of the girls finally alerted schoolteachers and police. Officers found a large number of photographs picturing her being sexually abused by a number of men.

Belgium is still reeling from the case of Marc Dutroux, who is awaiting trial for the kidnap and murder of four young girls in 1996.

Dutroux, aged 45, is charged among other things, with the death of four girls aged between eight and 19.

He was earlier convicted of abducting and raping five girls.