A Yukon man who held his family captive for three years at a remote wilderness home and sexually abused his teenage daughter has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

The 45-year-old cannot be named to protect the identity of his wife and three daughters.

Judge John Faulkner called it one of the worst cases of breach of trust imaginable, where a father uses a child to satisfy his sexual desires.

The man moved his family to the bush in 2007 supposedly to get them away from the bad city influences of Whitehorse. They lived in a wall tent about 150 kilometres from the nearest community.

There he inflicted bizarre religious beliefs and corporal punishments on his family. The next spring the man told his wife that, under directions from God, he’d taken the eldest daughter, then 15, to be his new wife.

Faulkner said the man so brainwashed the family that he was able to carry on his plan for almost three years.

A disturbing aspect Faulkner noted is that to this day, the man still claims his daughter was a consensual partner.

He has been in custody since his arrest in December 2010. With credit for time served he has five and a half years left on his sentence.

He will have to comply with conditions of the sex offender registry for 20 years after he's released.