SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A 53-year-old man who pleaded guilty to raping, sexually assaulting and using a gun to assault his siblings while growing up in Tuktoyaktuk was sentenced to nine years in jail on Nov. 15.

Crown prosecutor Shannon Smallwood asked for four to five years because the man pleaded guilty and saved the witnesses and victims from having to testify. As well, she said the evidence was sometimes inconsistent or incomplete.

Supreme Court Justice John Vertes, however, said such a light sentence could bring the justice system into "disrepute."

"I do not see how it could be anything less," Vertes said of the nine-year sentence. "These crimes must be met by serious consequences ... more than mere lip service.

"This is not meant to be a criticism of either of you (lawyers)," he said, adding he thought they did a good job in the case.

The offender repeatedly raped and abused three of his sisters in the 1970s and 1980s, but charges were only filed last year when the sisters came forward.

The man pleaded guilty to two counts of rape, one of sexual assault, and one charge of using a gun to commit an assault, for aiming a gun at his sister's head and then firing it into the roof.

Though the charges only involved two sisters, in the agreed statement of facts it was acknowledged he also forcibly had sex with a third, and he physically assaulted his brother.

Before Vertes handed down his sentence, the court heard victim impact statements from two of the man's sisters and one from his brother.

One, from a sister he abused and repeatedly raped, stated she contemplated suicide at nine years old, when the abuse started.

"I held this dirty secret for 40 years," read the statement.

She said now that he has pleaded guilty, she and her sisters can rest a little easier.

A statement from his other sister read that she viewed herself as "not a nice person" because she carried the memories and mental scars of being raped and abused.

"I have carried shame, guilt, and a feeling of being unclean," it read. "He acted like the devil."

The statement from his younger brother brimmed with hatred from suffering regular physical abuse by his elder sibling and watching him abuse his sisters and control their family. The younger brother recalled how the offender wouldn't let the siblings go to school for fear they would tell a teacher of the abuse.

"I'm ashamed to call him my brother," it read. "I don't think he realizes how much damage he did."

All of the statements revealed life-long depression, an inability to hold their own families together and recurring haunted memories.

The accused sat looking straight forward in the prisoner's box while the statements were read aloud.

He was given one year and six months credit for the year he served in jail awaiting sentencing, meaning he will serve seven years and six months in prison.

A friend of the family who witnessed some of the abuse and now lives in Yellowknife spoke to the media after the sentencing.

"I feel he should have got life (in prison)," said Verna Beaulieau.

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