A Cambridgeshire foster couple and their three adult children have been jailed for abusing and assaulting young people in their care.

Jeffrey Tanner, 55, and his wife Brenda, 53, from Peterborough, were convicted in April of a string of offences against three people, including two children.

On Wednesday Jeffrey Tanner was jailed for seven years and his wife for three-and-a-half years.

Their children, Preston, 20, Aaron, 25, and Tammy, 28, were given prison sentences for mistreating one of their parents' victims.

Your ill-treatment of vulnerable people was sustained and sadistic

Judge Isobel Plumstead

At King's Lynn Crown Court Judge Isobel Plumstead described the family as a "cruel dynasty".

"Jeffrey Tanner showed no remorse or sympathy. The children (his victims) suffered sustained and sadistic ill-treatment."

Tanner, described by the judge as "depraved and cruel", had forced one boy to drink urine and eat faeces as a punishment.

Judge Plumstead told him: "You are the commander of a cruel dynasty which is neither fair or just.

"You dominated your wife and your ill-treatment of vulnerable people was sustained and sadistic and you encouraged and led your children."

Showed sympathy

The judge said to his wife Brenda: "I accept on occasion you showed sympathy for the foster children but I regard you as a secondary mover in this.

"You betrayed the trust that the children put in you."

In the Tanner house cruelty was the norm, the judge said.

One of the couple's victims was a girl put in the couple's care by Cambridgeshire County Council who employed them as foster carers in the 1980s.

Mr and Mrs Tanner also acted as unofficial foster parents to a boy, with the knowledge of social workers.

Driving force

The third victim was an adult woman who was an acquaintance of one of the Tanners' children.

Police first became involved in January 2000 when the woman in her late thirties, who has learning difficulties, claimed to have been held prisoner by the Tanners for almost a year.

At their trial in April, Jeffrey and Brenda Tanner denied all 20 charges against them.

Jeffrey Tanner, described as the "driving force" behind the abuse, was convicted of nine offences including cruelty, administering noxious substances, unlawful wounding, and assault.

He was cleared of several other counts, including indecency with a girl.

Mrs Tanner was convicted of cruelty and inflicting grievous bodily harm on a boy.

Judge Plumstead said the Tanners had been guilty of a breach of trust and exploitation.

The couple's children, Tammy, Aaron and Preston admitted putting the adult woman in fear of violence. They were jailed for terms of between a year and 18 months.