Vic man jailed for abusing foster daughter

A Victorian man who subjected his foster daughter to years of sexual abuse has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.

The 84-year-old man admitted to first abusing the girl in 1971, when she was three years old, and continued to molest her during the next eight years.

When welfare workers visited the family, he told the girl not to say anything or she would be sent away from her siblings.

Victorian County Court Judge Sue Pullen said the man's wife begged him to stop when she became aware of the abuse.

"She presumed you would not do it again, but you did not cease your sexual abuse," Judge Pullen said on Wednesday.

The man also admitted to the sexual touching of a distant relative's daughter in his care on Christmas Eve in 1987.

Judge Pullen said the man's actions were most serious and disturbing, and involved an appalling breach of trust by a guardian.

She sentenced him to three-and-a-half years in jail, with a non-parole period of 16 months.